WW 1 1 'UiH B 





ffiMiKP 



Sfl(T)l)EL (D. ZTJEfflER 





Class ^ 

Book 

Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



o 




A MOSLEM BROTHER AND SISTER FROM BOKHARA 
This Russian province has a Moslem population of 1,250,000. 



CHILDHOOD EST 
THE MOSLEM WORLD 



By 
A. E.and S. M. 



Zwemer 



Zigzag Journeys in the Camel Coun- 
try. Arabia in Picture and Story. Illus- 
trated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. 
" Dr. and Mrs. Zwemer are charming guides, for 
they know the customs and the history, they see 
the most interesting places and people, and are full 
of cheery, good humor, and Christian common 
sense. We commend the book highly for interest 
and information." — Missionary Review of World. 

Topsy-Turvy Land. Arabia Pictured for 
Children. Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net .75. 

" A book of pictures and stories for big children 
and small grown-up folk, for all who love Sinbad 
the Sailor and his strange country. This strange 
country is Arabia, where judged by our way of 
looking at things, manners, customs and everything 
else looks topsy-turvy." — Boston Globe. 

By S. M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S. 

Fourth Edition Revised 

Arabia : The Cradle of Islam. Studies 
in the Geography, People and Politics of the 
Peninsula ; with an account of Islam and 
Missionary Work. With Maps and nu- 
merous illustrations from Drawings and 
Photographs. 8vo, cloth, net $2.00. 
" It comes at once into the vacant place of an up- 
to-date authority upon ' the neglected peninsula.' 
The comprehensive scope of the volume covers a 
wide range of interest, scientific and commercial, 
historical and literary, sociological, religious." 

— Outlook. 




A BRIDE FROM ALGERIA 



CHILDHOOD IN 
THE MOSLEM WORLD 

By 
SAMUEL MfZWEMER, F.R.G.S. 

Author of 

" Arabia: The Cradle of Islam," "The Moslem Christ," 

"Zigzag Journeys in the Camel Country," 

"Topsy-Turvy Land," etc., etc. 



ILLUSTRATED 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1915, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



-£ 






New York : 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago : 125 N. Wabash Ave. 
Toronto : 25 Richmond St., W. 
London : 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh : ioo r .Princes Street 



NOV -5 1915 



CU414429 



DEDICATED TO 

THE WORLD'S SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 

AND TO ALL WHO LABOUR FOR THE 

UPLIFT OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 



PREFACE 

MOHAMMED was, without doubt, one of 
the greatest religious leaders that the 
world has ever seen. He was a genius 
and a poet, a reformer and a great warrior. But 
Mohammed could never have said, "Suffer little 
children to come unto me and forbid them not, 
for of such is the kingdom of Heaven. ' ' His book, 
his life, his ideals, are not those of Him who 
placed a little child in the midst and gave the 
world of childhood an eternal inheritance of 
blessedness by His own Incarnation. 

The present wide and increasing interest in 
child welfare is due to Christianity, and makes 
the presentation of the facts here given in regard 
to Moslem childhood, timely. When the whole 
world has become one neighbourhood, no individ- 
ual or race can live to itself. 

This is not a book for children, but about chil- 
dren. It could not be a book for them if it dealt 
faithfully and fearlessly with the real conditions 
as observed by eye-witnesses in many lands. 
Every paragraph could have been corroborated 
by references to authorities and the use of foot- 
notes ; but these have been omitted in order not to 

7 



8 PREFACE 

litter the pages of the text or weary the reader's 
patience. A list of correspondents and a bibliog- 
raphy are given at the end of the volume. To all 
these missionary workers and writers I owe 
hearty thanks. The illustrations given are in- 
tended to set forth vividly the wide extent, the 
environment, the physical, intellectual and social 
conditions of Moslem childhood, in order that 
what we have seen with our eyes and heard with 
our ears, may enter the heart of the reader also. 

S. M. Zwemer. 

Caieo. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 19 

The conquest of Constantinople — The challenge of St. 
Sophia — The Moslem problem a unity — Its childhood 
a proof — Statistics of childhood — Their numbers in 
Africa, India, Algeria — The areas covered — The 
meuzzin's call from the Pacific to the Atlantic — Many 
areas and languages — National responsibility: Amer- 
ica, England — The urgency of the task. 



II 

ENVIRONMENT 41 

Islam born in the desert — Margoliouth's theory of the 
heat belt — The imprint of the desert on Islam — The 
nomad environment and its types of civilization: Balu- 
chistan — A typical village on the Nile — The bazaar at 
Algiers — The lot of womanhood in the city and among 
the nomads — Persian village life — Constantinople — 
Islam among pagan races — In China — In Java — The 
Moslem type of civilization — Degradation of woman- 
hood — Child marriage — Ignorance of medicine — 
Fatalism — A cry of pain — A new environment. 



Ill 

BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL CONDITIONS . 69 

The right of the child to be well born — The effect of 
heredity — Contagious diseases — Mortality of infants : 
in Egypt, Turkey, India, Syria, Morocco — An incident 
from Arabia — Bedouin children — The children of 
Kashgar — The leper boy — Moosa's baby — Inferiority 
of girls — Legitimacy — Ceremonies observed at birth : 
in China, Egypt, India — Aqiqah — Circumcision — 
Early marriage and its results — Ignorance of medicine 
— Magic in Turkey — Medicine in Arabia — Algerian 
superstitions — Child labour in Arabia; in Persia. 
9 



10 CONTENTS 



IV 

PAGE 

THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 115 

Al-Ghazali — General neglect — Illiteracy in India — 
Superstition — Belief in jinn — Use of charms and 
amulets — West Africa; Senegal; Kashmir; Kordofan 

— Buduh — The religious attitude of Islam — Grovel- 
ling superstitions in Morocco; India — The Zar in 
Egypt — The teacher of the mosque school — His repu- 
tation; his character — The education of a boy — The 
method — Higher education — Children's books — A 
chapter on prayer — Sex education gone mad — Two 
fish stories — Adam's vineyard — The story of the heifer 

— Moses and the fish — Jesus at school — Neglect of 
Bedouin children — " Give me God's due ! " 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 159 

Based on Moslem ethics — The Moslem idea of God and 
of Mohammed — De Boer's testimony — The contrast to 
Christianity in literature — The " Arabian Nights " and 
Al Hariri — Koran teaching on children — Literature on 
etiquette — Moslem saints not saintly — The surround- 
ings of the zenana — Degrading conversation — Results 
in Arabia, Sumatra, West Africa — Untruthfulness — 
Koran teaching on the subject — How moral actions 
are divided — The ceremonial law — The ten command- 
ments — Low ideals — A tainted atmosphere — The 
heart of a Moslem girl — A brighter side of the picture 
— Attempt to introduce Christian ethics. 



VI 

THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD .... 199 
Education without religion unknown — The effect of 
memorizing the Moslem creed — Allah — Angels and 
demons — Memorizing the Koran — A Moslem primer 

— The story of Nuh — Teaching regarding Jesus — 
Other Bible stories — The Day of Judgment — Hell not 
for Moslem children — Confession — Prayer — Ablution 

— A primer on prayer — The place of the mosque — 
Result of this religious training — S. Khuda Bukhsh — 
The Moslem fast — Almsgiving — Pilgrimage — Saint 
worship and Marabouts in Algeria — The death of a 
child — The bier — The funeral — Mourning the dead. 






CONTENTS 11 

VII 

PAGE 

THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND CHRISTIAN MIS- 
SIONS 239 

The Tiflis coat of arms — The advent of the railway 
and Western civilization — Arabia an example — Trip- 
oli — Persia — Modernist movements — Dress — Koran 
translations — Increasing desire for education, even of 
girls — The Dutch East Indies — India — Constanti- 
nople — Lack of moral training — Christian mission- 
aries as pioneers of education — In Egypt — In Persia 

— In Turkey — Mission School at Port Said — Tangier 

— Muscat — The slave trade — Medical missions — 
Christian literature — The Bible — Need of books for 
children — The fight for character — A little witness — 
God's plan for Moslem childhood — Our opportunity and 
duty. 



Like a cradle rocking, rocking, 

Silent, peaceful, to and fro, 
Like a mother's sweet looks dropping 

On the little face below, 
Hangs the green earth, swinging, swinging^ 

Jarless, noiseless, safe and slow; 
Falls the light of God's face bending 

Down and watching us below. 



O great heart of God! whose 

Cannot hindered be nor crossed; 
Will not weary, will not even 

In our death itself be lost — 
Love divine! of such great loving, 

Only mothers know the cost — 
Cost of love, which all love passing, 

Gave a Son to save the lost. 

— Helen M. Jackson. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Bride from Algeria .... 

Young Girl and Baby of the Messeria Tribe, 

Kordofan .... 
A Little Tartar Girl, Representative of Moslem 

Childhood in Russia .... 
The Daughter of the Nawab of Hyderabad, India 
Egyptian Peasant Woman and Child . 
Children from East Arabia 
Desert Joys of Bedouin Childhood 
Four Little Sisters from Bengal . 
A Beggar Boy from Algiers 
Persian Seyyids with Their Boys 
Moslem Children from Cape Town 
Group of Village Women and Children 
Egyptian Mothers with Their Babies . 
Children from Mecca .... 
Young Moslem Girl from Equatorial Africa, with 

Talisman and Beads 
Fellah Girl from an Egyptian Village, with Native 

Drum ..... 
Group of Children of the Beshari Tribe, Anglo 

Egyptian Sudan 
Moslem Women and Children from French Equa 

torial Africa .... 
Little Children, Boys and Girls, at Tangerang Ban 

tarn, Java, Weaving Hats 

13 



FACING 
PAGE 

Title / 



Egypt 



24 

28 
34 
42 
44 
46 
52 
54 
58 
62 
70 
72 
74 

82 

86 

90 

94 

108 



14 ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 






The Price of a Turkish Rug : Moslem Girls in Tur- 
key at the Loom ...... 110 y 

A Moslem Day School 116 ^ 

Another Algerian Type ..... 120 
Egyptian Child with Its Father, Showing Amulets 

and Charms 124 

Tunisian Children 132 

A Lad from Tunis 138 

A Moslem Brother and Sister from Bokhara . . 142 

A Group of Moslem Boys and Girls from Muscat, 
Arabia: The Royal Family . . . .152 

The Younger Half of a Mohammedan Family, 

Honan, China 166 

Persian Childhood 172 * 

The Present Shah of Persia and the Son of a 
Nobleman . 178 

A Family Group at Biskra, North Africa . . 186 

Moslem Boys from Garoet, Java: Players of the 
Musical Instrument Made of Bamboo, Called the 
Anklong 192 

The Cry of the Drowning : An Appeal for Educa- 
tion Made by Moslems to Their Own People in 
Syria 202 

A Page from a Moslem Child's Primer . . 203 

Picture of Noah's Ark, and of the Sacrifice of 
Ishmael by Abraham, According to Moslem 
Artists 204 

Moslem Girls in Java, Dressed for a National The- 
atrical Performance ..... 216 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Moslem Dervish Preaching to a Group of Village 

Boys and Girls in Algeria 
A Girl from Tunis .... 
A Young Educated Javanese 
Girls' Mission School, Mogador, Morocco ) 
School for Moslem Girls at Port Said . 1 
Young Moslem Girl from Abyssinia 
Good-bye 



FACING 




PAGE 




226 


S 


234 


S 


242 


/ 


254 


^ 


258 


\S 


268 


i 



NOTE 

We express grateful acknowledgment for photographs 
supplied for our illustrations, to Miss I. Lilias Trotter, 
Algiers; Mr. J. Angus Gillan, the Sudan; Miss Jenny 
von Mayer, Russia; Rev. G. J. Pennings, Arabia; Miss 
Williams, Bengal; Miss G. Y. Holliday, Tabriz; Rev. 
James Cantine, D.D., Arabia; Miss MacNale, Morocco; 
Rev. J. P. McNaughton, Turkey; Mrs. J. R. van Andel, 
Java ; Mr. Frank B. Rairden, Cairo ; Mr. G. Garabedian, 
Cape Town; Dr. J. A. Menzies, Honan, China; Rev. G. 
E. Brown, Hyderabad; Rev. Charles Ogilvie, Peking; 
and to the photographers G. Lekegian & Co., Cairo, and 
other artists. 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 



"One generation, one entire generation of all the world of 
children understood as they should be, loved as they ask to be, 
and so developed as they might be, would more than begin the 
millennium." — Frances Hodgson Burnett. 

" Every time one thinks of the little children of the world and 
then of our little children here at home his heart must suffer 
for their sufferings, over the emptiness and the vanity and the 
hatreds, and the poverty of their life; and he must think also of 
that holy Child Jesus, the Father's little Son, who came down to 
make these little children and their lives as rich and fragrant and 
full of joy as the lives of our children here at home." — Robert 
E. Speer. 

" For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my command- 
ments." — Ex. xx: 5. 



A WOELD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 

WHEN the Turks conquered Constantino- 
ple, May 29, 1453, the defenceless Chris- 
tian inhabitants fled in crowds to the 
Christian Church, Aya Sophia, in the belief, we 
are told, that as soon as the enemy had reached 
the pillar of Constantine the Great, an angel 
would appear in the heavens and scatter the 
victors. But there was no supernatural deliver- 
ance. The Turks came, the refugees were made 
prisoners, and the temple of Constantius and 
Justinian was consecrated to Islam. Sultan 
Murad III. had a crescent measuring a hundred 
and fifty feet in diameter put in place of the cross, 
and gilded at great expense, so that now from 
afar, even from distant Olympia, Moslems may 
see the symbol of their faith glittering in the 
sun. 

Clear as the dome and minarets of St. Sophia 
and equally challenging, the Moslem problem 
stands before the world of Christendom. In 
Europe Islam has been an intruder, in Asia a 
usurper, and in Africa a rival of Christianity. Its 

19 



20 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

three great capitals dominate three continents. 
Mecca has been the heart of the Moslem world for 
many centuries, and is to-day the pilgrim centre 
for one-seventh of the human race. From Sierra 
Leone to Canton, and from Tobolsk to Singapore, 
the faithful spread their prayer carpets, build 
their houses, and bury their dead toward Mecca. 
Constantinople faces two continents and two 
great civilizations, and still remains the city of 
the Caliphate, although of a tottering empire. 
Cairo is the capital of Egypt, the metropolis of 
all Africa, and the literary centre of the Moslem 
world. There is no speech nor language in Islam 
where the voice of the Cairo press is not heard. 
Their line is gone out through all the earth and 
their words to the end of the world. 

The unity of the Moslem problem, however, is 
not political or intellectual merely. Islam pre- 
sents a solidarity of organization, methods, and 
spirit unparalleled and unapproached by any 
other organized world force against the Christian 
Church. It is inter-continental, inter-national, 
and inter-racial, and yet distinct and well denned 
in the midst of nations and races and religious 
forces. This unity knows no geographical lines 
nor racial barriers. It is distinguished by intel- 
lectual ideals, and by social and religious ties, 
characterized by their elasticity and tenacity, and 
by their prominence and power. When we speak 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 21 

of Islam, therefore, we face an intellectual, a so- 
cial, and a moral problem of which all the factors 
can be coordinated and related among different 
races and in many lands. The conditions, as well 
as the difficulties, are largely similar. The line of 
approach has been proved to be almost identical, 
and the methods of successful work the same from 
Morocco to Peking. 

A careful study of all the facts collected in the 
chapters that follow will show clearly that the 
unity of the Moslem world is specially evident 
in the condition of its childhood. One-eighth of 
all the children in the world live under the shadow 
of the crescent in the lands of Islam. It has been 
remarked by Alonzo Bunker that the attractive- 
ness of childhood among all races "sometimes 
appears to be accentuated among less intelligent 
peoples ; so that, before the fogs of sin and igno- 
rance have blurred the image of God in which they 
were created, they show a strength and brightness 
more marked than in their more favoured 
brothers and sisters in enlightened lands. This 
fact has not received due attention in ethnological 
studies.' ' The faces of Moslem children from 
many lands that illustrate the chapters of this 
book are a proof of this statement. They portray 
the best and not the worst; the bright, not the 
dark side of Islam. The hope of the Moslem 
world is in its childhood, and when one looks into 



22 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the bright faces of these smiling infants, or mis- 
chievous, happy boys and girls, one remembers 
that of these too it may be said, ' i Trailing clouds 
of glory do they come." But from their earliest 
years they enter nevertheless into the inheritance 
of Islam. 

No religion, as we shall see, pays such early 
attention to the religious training of the child, 
and so little attention to its moral education as 
does Islam. To all of these children the ideal of 
character is Mohammed; he is their hope for sal- 
vation, and God's will for them is revealed in the 
Koran. Of their attitude toward Mohammed in 
every part of the Moslem world, one may almost 
hear them say: "Our Lord Mohammed — 



" Through him the first fond prayers are said 
Our lips of childhood frame; 
The last low whispers of our dead 
Are burdened with his name. 

" Lord and Master of us all, 
Whate'er our name or sign, 
We own thy sway, we hear thy call, 
We test our lives by thine! " 



The total population of this world which tests 
its life by the life of Mohammed and follows his 
teaching is estimated at 201,000,000. Of these 
42,000,000 live in Africa, 2,300,000 in Europe, and 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 23 

nearly all the rest in Asia and Malaysia. 1 In the 
table which follows we present a statistical survey 
of the number and distribution of Moslem children, 
basing our estimates upon government reports 
and the most recent and conservative statistics. 
According to the "Encyclopedia Britannica" 
the number of children in the world under fifteen 
in every thousand of the population is four hun- 
dred. As this estimate is based on European 
statistics, the percentage is less than that which 
obtains in Eastern lands where families are gen- 
erally larger and early marriage prevails. Ac- 
cording to the last census of the United States, 
the children under fifteen years of age are nearly 
thirty-three per cent of the total population; and 
although Moslem childhood does not last so long 
as childhood in Western lands, since the burdens 
and responsibilities of motherhood and father- 
hood are early thrust upon them, we have never- 
theless taken forty per cent as a minimum esti- 
mate. This gives a total population of Moslem 
children of over 80,000,000, divided as follows : 

A o . Moslem Children 

Africa: 

In countries under British rule or 

protection 9,120,000 

In French colonies and possessions. 6,000,000 

Eemainder of Africa 1,600,000 

1 For details of Moslem world population see " A New Statistical 
Survey" in The Moslem World, Vol. IV, pp. 145-157. 



24 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

j • Moslem Children 

Asia: 

India and dependencies, with Fed- 
erated Malay States 27,000,000 

Dutch East Indies 14,120,000 

Philippine Islands 121,000 

French possessions 80,000 

Enssia (in Asia and Europe) 8,000,000 

Turkish Empire and Arabia 6,000,000 

Afghanistan 2,000,000 

China 3,400,000 

Persia 1,800,000 

Siam 120,000 

Europe 900,000 

North and South America 70,000 

80,331,000 

It is difficult to realize what this means in a 
statistical table, for, as Carlyle remarks, "Masses 
indeed, and yet singular to say, if thou follow 
them into their garrets and hutches, the masses 
consist of units, every unit of whom has his own 
heart and sorrows !" The line of Moslem chil- 
dren if they stood together, holding hands, would 
stretch exactly twice around the globe's circum- 
ference of 40,000,000 metres. The Moslem chil- 
dren of India alone, marching with hands on 
each other's shoulders, would reach in one un- 
broken procession fifteen times the distance from 
New York to Chicago $ or if we count the Moslem 
children in India and in Persia together, we have 
nearly 29,000,000 children under fifteen years of 




YOUNG GIRL AND BABY OF THE MESSERIA TRIBE, KORDOFAN 

On the border-marches of Islam. Notice the amulet worn by the 
older childj her jewelry, and the curious braiding of her hair. 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 25 

age. According to the census of 1910 the whole 
family of childhood in the United States was only 
a little larger, namely 29,499,136. The problem 
of child welfare in this section of the Moslem 
world alone, therefore, is equally large statis- 
tically as it is for the United States. Yet in the 
latter case we have a Christian environment, free, 
compulsory education, and large expenditures for 
the betterment of childhood. In the case of India, 
we know that 96% per cent of Moslem adults are 
illiterate, and that no provision is made for the 
masses of its Moslem childhood for either intel- 
lectual or moral training. 

One-third of all the babies born in Africa wear 
Moslem charms or talismans around their necks, 
like the young girl and baby of the Messeria 
tribe, Kordofan, in our picture. And in many 
cases this is their only clothing! In Kashmir 
alone there are more Moslem children than the 
total population of the great city of Liverpool; 
while the number of Moslem children found in 
China is a million more than the entire popula- 
tion of Chicago. The world of childhood repre- 
sented in this volume would fill seventeen cities 
as large as London, and yet even here the com- 
parisons seem inadequate to impress one with the 
need and the opportunity of these little ones for 
whom Christ died. In the case of Algeria we 
have fuller statistics carefully collated by mis- 



26 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

sionary workers. In that one Moslem country 
there are 710,488 native boys and girls between 
the ages of five and fourteen, and 331,287 baby 
boys under five years of age. If God should call 
us out, as He did Abraham, to tell the stars, we 
would have to count all of those visible to the 
naked eye in the whole starry vault one hundred 
times over to reach the number of Moslem boys 
in Algeria alone. He Who healeth the broken 
in heart and bindeth up their wounds, Who 
telleth the number of the stars and calleth them 
all by their names, knows the name also of every 
Moslem child in Algeria and throughout the 
world. He not only knows them by name because 
He is their Father, but He loves them. His own 
word assures us, "Whosoever shall receive one 
such little child in My name receiveth Me." 

What the term "Moslem childhood' ' includes be- 
comes evident also when we consider areas as well 
as populations. All of North Africa and nearly all 
of Central and Western Asia are dominated by 
Islam. Between the nearer and( farther East, 
north of India and south of the Siberian steppes, 
stretches the region known as Central Asia, the 
roof of the world, where three great empires, 
India, Russia, and China, meet. Here three great 
religions have struggled for the mastery, and 
one after the other held supreme for centuries; 
and although Buddhism and Christianity still 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 27 

count a few adherents, Islam has swept the field 
and, except for Tibet, the whole is under its sway. 
The nomads only profess this religion nominally, 
but the settlers, especially those in Bokhara, may 
be counted among the most fanatical Moslems in 
the world. The social life, literature, architecture, 
art, etiquette, and everyday speech of all Central 
Asia bear the trademark of Islam. An ordinary 
pocket compass goes by the name of "Mecca- 
pointer," and 1,500 Chinese Moslem pilgrims 
go by the Karakoram Pass, the highest in 
the world, to Mecca every year. Persia, that 
"fallen empire slumbering in the sun, forgotten 
by the busy West, remote from its ways and its 
works, unthreaded by its railways, known but as 
a name, ' ' has a world all its own of Moslem child- 
hood, for Moslems here belong to the Shiah sect, 
which in some respects is more exclusive than 
any other. Afghanistan is socially and morally 
one of the darkest places of the earth, full of the 
habitations of cruelty. It is an unoccupied mis- 
sion field. Ninety per cent of the people are 
illiterate, womanhood is degraded, and the whole 
population is Moslem. Baluchistan to the south 
is also wholly Moslem, and yet the Moslem popu- 
lation of Arabia, Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan, 
and Baluchistan together does not equal that of 
a single island in the Malay Archipelago, Java, 
which has 29,627,557 Mohammedans, of whom 



28 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

forty per cent are children. Sumatra, too, has its 
share of Moslem childhood, as have the Federated 
Malay States with their great seaport Singapore. 
Islam has made inroads upon the population of 
Burma and Ceylon and Madagascar. In Africa 
it is pushing its conquests southward and west- 
ward in the basins of the Congo and the Niger. 

Islam stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 
Before the dawn paints the sky red, the Moslem 
boys among the Moros in the Philippine Islands 
hear the muezzin's call to prayer. An hour later 
it is taken up on the minarets of Java. Still an 
hour later it is heard in the Moslem quarter of 
Calcutta. Sixty minutes later the cry, "God is 
great and Mohammed is God's apostle," is heard 
in Bombay with its teeming Moslem population, 
and along all this meridian through Afghanistan 
and Central Asia. Another hour goes by, and 
from the oldest mosques of Samarkand and 
Bokhara the same call to prayer rings out. It 
is now high noon in the Philippines, but the cry 
rings in Mecca six hours later, — the same words 
that were heard for the first time thirteen cen- 
turies earlier. Again an hour passes, and the 
muezzin calls at Cairo ; another hour, and his voice 
is heard at Tripoli; again an hour, and he calls 
to prayer at Algiers, and finally the same cry, 
"Mohammed is God's Apostle," rings out over 
the Atlantic at Freetown and Sierra Leone. So 




A LITTLE TARTAR GIRL 



Representative of Moslem childhood in Russia. The total Moslem 
population of Russia is 20,000,000. 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 29 

it is that, in a sense which the poet never intended, 
we may say of Islam also : 

"As o'er each continent and island 

The dawn leads on another day, 

The voice of prayer is never silent, 

Nor dies the strain of praise away." 

But it is the praise of Mohammed and not prayer 
in the name of Christ. 

There are points still farther west and east than 
those mentioned, which must also be included in 
the world of Moslem childhood. A considerable 
number of Moslems live at Perth, Australia, 
where they have built a beautiful mosque; at 
Jamaica, West Indies, where they are winning 
negro Christians to their faith; at Cape Town 
and in Brazil; in Georgetown, Guiana, and some 
other points in South America. These groups, 
however, are numerically unimportant. 

The world of Moslem childhood is polyglot. 
Mohammed the prophet spoke Arabic and called 
it the language of the angels. He could neither 
read nor write, but dictated the Koran text in this 
language. The call to prayer, as well as the 
prayers offered, must be in Arabic throughout the 
whole world of Islam. Yet to three-fourths of 
those who believe Mohammed's message, Arabic 
is a language not understood of the people. The 
Arabic religious vocabulary has forced its way 



SO CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

into many other tongues spoken by Moham- 
medans, and its alphabet has been adopted or 
adapted in many parts of Asia and Africa. The 
Koran has been translated into Persian, Urdu, 
Turkish, Javanese, Bengali, and two or three 
other languages, but these translations are ex- 
pensive, rare, and not commonly used. The chief 
literary languages of Islam next to Arabic are 
Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Bengali, Chinese, and 
Russian. In these there exists a considerable 
religious literature. The chief Moslem languages 
in Africa next to Arabic are Kisuaheli, Hausa, 
Berber, and Kabyle. In India we must add to 
this list of polyglots, among many others, Pun- 
jabi, Gujerati, Kashmiri, Baluchi, and Pushtu; 
while for Asia Minor and Europe, in addition to 
Turkish, there are Kurdish, Albanian, and a num- 
ber of Turkish dialects. 

The Bible has been translated, or a portion of 
the New Testament at least, into all these lan- 
guages of the Moslem world ; yet it is well to em- 
phasize at the outset the fact that these Moslem 
lands, and therefore this world of Moslem child- 
hood, has been greatly neglected, and in some cases 
utterly omitted from the programme of world- 
wide missions. How full of pathos are the words 
of Miss Von Mayer, who writes from Samarkand : 
"I shall gather information as to numbers, edu- 
cation, and mortality of children here, but I can- 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 31 

not contribute to your report anything as to the 
religious work done, for not a single one of the 
one and a half million Moslem children in this 
field, at any time or anywhere, comes into con- 
tact with Christianity. ' ' What she says of 
Bokhara and Khiva is true also of Chinese Tur- 
kestan, of the nomad tribes in the deserts of 
Gobi and Mongolia, of all Afghan children, of 
those in Central and Western Arabia, the extreme 
south of Persia, and most of Baluchistan. And 
to this the unoccupied areas of Moslem popula- 
tion in Africa — most of Morocco, the southern 
half of Algeria, Tripoli, the Atlas Riff country, 
the uncounted thousands of the Sahara districts, 
the millions of Nigeria and the Sudan, and the 
thousands in British, French, and Italian Somali- 
land — and we face a problem of unreached and 
utterly neglected childhood which we must lay 
upon our hearts as it rests upon the heart of 
God. The total number of children in these 
wholly unoccupied areas is not less than 40,000,- 
000, untouched by any Christian influences. 

Aside from all missionary claims upon the 
churches of Christendom, no one can deny that 
there exists a great and grave national responsi- 
bility toward this world of childhood, on the part 
of European Governments which have been made 
morally responsible, through colonial expansion 
or conquest, for the childhood in these areas. 



S2 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

This white man's burden of responsibility for the 
social, intellectual — we will not say religious — 
condition of those who are under European Gov- 
ernments cannot be shifted. And no believer in 
God can doubt that there is a divine purpose in 
thus entrusting the material, moral, and spiritual 
interests of these millions to those who call them- 
selves Christians. 

Before the breaking out of the great European 
war and the changes which will doubtless take 
place after it as regards colonial rule in Africa, 
the total number of Mohammedans under British 
rule or protection was 90,478,111. Of these, in 
round numbers 22,000,000 live in Africa and 
68,000,000 in Asia. Great Britain practically 
holds the balance of power political in the Moslem 
world. Next in order of importance is Holland, 
with not less than 35,000,000 Moslems in her 
colonies. Russia has 20,000,000 Moslem subjects 
and France 15,000,000 in Africa and 232,000 in 
Asia. Germany and Italy each counted about the 
same number of Moslems in their African pro- 
tectorates, the former 1,480,000 and the latter 
1,365,000. Portugal, Belgium, and Spain also 
have a Moslem population in their African pos- 
sessions, but only in the case of Portugal does 
the total exceed a quarter of a million. The 
United States of America faces its largest mis- 
sionary problem in the Moros of the Philippine 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 33 

Islands group. These number 277,547, and are all 
Moslems. This is the largest single unit of un- 
evangelized people within the bounds of the 
United States Government. Socially, intellectu- 
ally, morally, and spiritually these people are the 
most needy of all, and therefore have the greatest 
claim upon the nation which boasts that all men 
are created equal and should have equal privi- 
leges. Savage and fierce as the Moros may be, 
they are physically and mentally superior to the 
surrounding pagans who inhabit the hills and the 
interior of Mindanao. Islam has here undoubt- 
edly raised the standard of civilization. "With 
Mohammedanism came art and knowledge and 
communication with the outside world. Never- 
theless, as William H. Taft remarked when Gov- 
ernor of the Philippines: "They do not under- 
stand republican government. They welcome a 
despotism, and they will never understand popu- 
lar government until they have been converted to 
Christianity." 

In the case of all these possessions and colonies 
it is evident that the problem of secular educa- 
tion for Moslem childhood rests first of all upon 
the government. Illiteracy, as we shall see later, 
is well-nigh universal among Moslems, and it is 
not impossible, even with a government that pro- 
fesses strict religious neutrality, to afford such 
education, mental and moral, as shall be an uplift 



34 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

to these backward races. Great Britain, France, 
Germany, and the Netherlands have done much for 
the economic development of their colonies, and so 
have removed many hindrances to real progress. 
They have also given Moslems special induce- 
ments to accept Western education. Above all, 
with a few notable exceptions, they have granted 
liberty for missionary effort. On the other hand, 
Great Britain in East Africa and in Nigeria seems 
to aim at conserving Islam wherever it finds that 
faith, and although not actively and officially pro- 
Moslem, it yet furthers the spread of this religion 
in pagan districts. Dr. St. Clair Tisdall writes: 
"At present the government ' appears to put 
obstacles in the way of all concerned in seeking 
to evangelize the people of British East Africa.' 
So much has this been the case that not long since 
the various missions sent a special deputation to 
urge that the government should at least be neu- 
tral, and no longer use its influence to keep the 
chiefs and others from Christian teaching, nor 
show a tendency to encourage Islam as more suit- 
able for the people than Christianity. The gov- 
ernment has gone out of its way to build, open, 
and support schools for Arabs, Suahelis, and 
others, in which no Christian teaching may be 
given. There are some reasons for hoping, how- 
ever, that this foolish and unworthy policy will be 
modified, if not abandoned. 7 ' 




THE DAUGHTER OF THE NAWAB OF HYDERABAD, INDIA 

Type of the educated and wealthy Moslems in this great province. 

The total population of Hyderabad is 13,374,676, 

and the Moslem population 1,380,990. 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 35 

The same writer, basing his testimony on reli- 
able sources, says in regard to Nigeria: 

"Our local government identifies itself with 
Islam against Christianity, and actually adopts an 
attitude toward Christian missions which the Is- 
lamic Government of Persia itself no longer ven- 
tures to take up. The missionaries are actually 
afraid to inform the English public of the worst 
details of the way in which their work is restricted 
and the Mohammedan religion recognized as pa- 
tronized by the government and treated as if it 
were the established religion of this English Pro- 
tectorate, lest worse oppression should follow. 
But in the Times, some two years ago, an English- 
man in high position was permitted to urge that 
no religious instruction except Mohammedan 
should be allowed in the government schools, nor 
did that journal allow a reply to appear. Hence 
the Koran is now taught by Moslem teachers in all 
government schools in Mohammedan districts, 
and Islamic law is now being introduced and 
administered in pagan tribes in Northern 
Nigeria. This 'is worse than a crime; it is a 
blunder.' " 

Whatever governments do for the welfare of 
childhood must be done now. One generation of 
children trained in the best of our Western civili- 
zation, and above all, led to a personal knowledge 
of Him Wlio is the Saviour of all men and the 



36 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Friend of little children, would lead these back- 
ward races toward progress and enlightenment. 
The urgency of this claim is evident when we 
remember how short is the period of Moslem 
childhood, and how early the responsibilities of 
manhood and womanhood are forced upon them. 
Mrs. Stanley Emerich, of Mar din, in writing con- 
cerning the shepherd Kurds gives a conversation 
between them which typically sets forth the brev- 
ity of Mohammedan childhood : 

" 'His grandmother looks for a wife for him,' 
our informant went on. 

' ' ' What ! ' I gasped. ' But he can 't be more than 
nine years old.' 

" 'He is eleven, — and in two years he will 
marry. He will have children, and beat his wife, 
and care for his sheep, and some day die. ' Tomas 
outlined the tragic life impassively. 'He's only 
a Kurd. What are Kurds I ' he asked, dismissing 
the small Sheikh Musa with a wave of his hand. 
' They are nothing, ' he answered himself. ' ' 

At the age of eleven or twelve, and sometimes 
even earlier, the girls commence to be secluded 
and veiled. Boys in Egypt and Turkey are often 
married at fifteen and sixteen. In comparison 
with the majority of children in Western kinds we 
might almost say that these children have no 
childhood at all. Of the Moslems in the Punjab we 
are told by Miss Dora Whitely: "The baby girls 



A WORLD OF MOSLEM CHILDHOOD 37 

are engaged, often to men of middle age or more, 
and are actually married when under twelve years 
of age, but sometimes remain in their father's 
house for another year or two. A girl's earliest 
recollection must be that of hearing her parents 
talking about the i arrangement ' which they have 
made for her." And a missionary in Egypt 
writes: "We recall hearing one Moslem girl tell 
that she only knew her father by seeing him 
through a lattice window from the second story 
as he passed along the street below, her mother 
pointing him out to her. The girls are robbed of 
the happy, care-free life of girlhood, and are 
thrust, all unprepared, from childhood into the 
burdens and responsibilities of motherhood." 

In the chapters that follow, the environment in 
which these children live, the physical conditions 
and neglect that are their lot, the mental and 
moral training they receive through Islam, and 
which is the privilege of only a few, are laid be- 
fore the reader. If any part of the Moslem mis- 
sionary problem can appeal to the heart of Chris- 
tians, it surely is this great world of child- 
hood. 

" The great world's heart is aching, aching fiercely in the 

night, 
And God alone can heal it, and God alone give light; 
And the men to bear that message, and to speak the living 

word, 
Are you and I, my brothers, and the millions that have 

heard. 



38 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

" Can we close our eyes to duty ? Can we fold our hands at ease, 
While the gates of night stand open to the pathways of the 

seas? 
Can we shut up our Compassions? Can we leave our prayer 

unsaid 
Till the lands which sin has blasted have been quickened from 

the dead?" 



II 

ENVIRONMENT 



"If the desert is the garden of Allah, it is also the abode 
of devils who resent the intrusion of man and annoy him with 
sandstorms, scorching south winds, show him mirages of lakes 
and cool trees when he is almost driven mad by the heat, frighten 
his camels at night, or trick him into following wrong roads. 

" The desert has left an impression on my soul which nothing 
will ever efface. I entered it frivolously, like a fool who rushes 
in where angels and, I believe, even devils fear to tread. I 
left it as one stunned, crushed by the deadly majesty I had seen 
too closely. 

" The desert is the garden of Allah, not of the bountiful God 
Who is worshipped with harmonious chants of love in the soft 
incense-laden atmosphere of a cathedral, but the Jehovah of 
Israel, a consuming fire, on Whom no man can look and live." 
— Hans Vischee — "Across the Sahara." 

" A certain degree of similarity in human character and an even 
greater similarity of language prevails over an immense area, 
where races of most various origin have all been assimilated more 
or less by the one which occupies the healthy crown of the land, 
the Arabian of Nejd." — D. G. Hogaeth — "The Nearer East." 



II 

ENVIRONMENT 

ISLAM was born in the desert. The land which 
is the cradle of this great world religion is 
one of the most unfertile and inaccessible 
regions, with an area of over a million square 
miles. Arabia has no rivers and not a single one 
of its small mountain streams, some of which are 
perennial, ever reaches the seacoast. Vast sandy- 
deserts or mountain ranges, barren with deso- 
lation in its most frightful form, cover a large 
part of this area. North of Medina a wilderness 
of lava-stones, with many extinct crater-heads, 
stretches for many miles, a black, gloomy, barren 
region. The sandy tracts of the so-called Arabian 
deserts, which stretch from Mecca eastward and 
northward, are termed by the Arabs themselves 
nefud (drained, exhausted, spent), the name given 
on most maps. 

The general physical features of this " desert' ' 
are those of a plain clothed with stunted, aromatic 
shrubs of many varieties, but their value as 
pasture is very unequal, some being excellent for 
camels and sheep, others absolutely worthless. 

41 



42 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Some nefuds abound in grasses and flowering 
plants after the early rains, and then the desert 
"blossoms like the rose." Others are without 
rain and barren all the year; they are covered 
with long stretches of drift-sand, carried about by 
the wind and tossed in billows on the weather side 
of the rocks and bushes. Palgrave asserts that 
some of. the nefud sands are 600 feet deep. 
They prevail in the vast unexplored region south 
of Nejd and north of Hadramaut, including the 
so-called "Great Arabian Desert.' ' Absolute 
sterility is the dominant feature here, whereas 
the northern nefuds are the pasture lands for 
thousands of horses and sheep. 

The great wadys of Arabia are also a charac- 
teristic feature, celebrated since the days of Job. 
These wadys, often full to the brim in winter and 
black by reason of frost, but entirely dried up 
during the heat of summer, would never be sus- 
pected of giving nourishment to even a blade of 
grass when seen in the dry season. 

It was in such an environment that Mohammed 
was born and brought up. The desert was his 
school and his place of vision, and his religion has 
borrowed much from this early environment and 
first extended throughout the desert lands and 
plateaus of Central Asia and North Africa. Pro- 
fessor Margoliouth observes that in the main — 

"Islam is a religion of the Heat Belt, the part 




EGYPTIAN PEASANT WOMAN AND CHILD 



ENVIRONMENT 43 

of the earth's surface which lies between thirty 
degrees north latitude and thirty degrees south 
latitude, with a mean temperature of sixty-eight 
degrees F. * During the past five hundred years/ 
says Mr. Alleyne Ireland, 'the people of this belt 
have added nothing whatever to human advance- 
ment. Those natives of the tropics and sub-tropics 
who have not been under direct European influ- 
ence have not during that time made a single 
contribution of the first importance to art, litera- 
ture, science, manufacture, or invention ; they have 
not produced an engineer, or a chemist, or a biol- 
ogist, or a historian, or a painter, or a musician 
of the first rank.' Islam, however, has extended 
somewhat to the north of this belt, which includes 
the whole of Africa, Arabia, the Malay Peninsula, 
and the Malay Archipelago; probably forty-one 
or forty-two degrees marks its limit of extension 
northwards. And so far as Islam has produced 
literary monuments of the sort which Mr. Ireland 
describes, their authors belong almost exclusively 
to those eleven or twelve degrees." 

When one considers the present extent of 
Islam, and how it dominates intellectually, so- 
cially, and morally the lives of millions, moulding 
everything according to its pattern and produc- 
ing an inward unity, even where outward circum- 
stance and condition are utterly dissimilar, it 
seems as if a sirocco blast has carried the effect 



44 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

of the desert everywhere. The mystery and the 
mastery of this religion obtrude on every hand. 
The Moslem world appears at times like the 
Sahara Desert does to the traveller, "an enor- 
mous waste of splendour and glory, of richness 
and desolation. Grand in its cruelty, pitiless in 
beauty, it fascinates, appals, enchains without 
trying, superbly indifferent whether or not we 
care, enriching or annihilating with equal aloof- 
ness.' ' 

Islam bears on it the imprint of the desert: 
fierce, defiant, appalling, silent, a land of decep- 
tions and mirages, of glaring light and dark 
shadow and cruel desolation. When Mohammed 
described God as Light upon Lights (Surat En 
Nur), or when he pictured the fires of the bottom- 
less pit with scorching, burning winds and fuel 
of lava-stones, he spoke as a son of the desert. 
John C. Van Dyke, describing the desert, calls it 
"a gaunt land of splintered peaks, torn valleys, 
and hot skies. And at every step there is the 
suggestion of the fierce, the defiant, the defensive. 
Everything within its borders seems fighting to 
maintain itself against destroying forces. There 
is a war of elements and a struggle for existence 
going on here that for ferocity is unparalleled 
elsewhere in nature. ' ' And such was the environ- 
ment in which Mohammed received his revela- 
tion. The Moslems' conception of God, their be- 




CHILDREN FROM EAST ARABIA 
The son and nephew of Abdul Aziz bin Saood, the ruler of Nejd. 



ENVIRONMENT 45 

lief in jinn, their fast of Ramadhan, the fierce- 
ness of their fanaticism, and the graciousness of 
their hospitality, all bear traces of nomad life. 
" There is the determination of the starving in 
all desert life; the first law of the desert is the 
law of endurance and abstinence. ' ' Speaking of 
the endurance of heat and cold and fatigue 
among the nomads who inhabit the salt desert 
of Lop in Central Asia, Ellsworth Huntington 
writes : 

"Such intensity is often supposed to be a result 
of Mohammedan fanaticism and fatalism. More 
probably it is the result of life in the desert. 
There none succeed except those who, though often 
lazy and dilatory, are capable at times of becom- 
ing almost monomaniacs, fanatics, animated by 
the will to do some deed in spite of heaven or 
hell." 

The Moslem children who live in Persia, Af- 
ghanistan, Arabia, Northern India, Tibet, Chi- 
nese Turkestan, and Asiatic Eussia, as well as 
those of Tripoli, Tunis, and the great Sahara 
region, are born and brought up in this nomad 
environment. "The people," as Huntington 
remarks, "are varied, the fierce Afghan being as 
different from the sycophant Persian, as is the 
truculent Mongol from the mild chanto of Chinese 
Turkestan. Yet in spite of all this, not only the 
physical features of the country, but the habits 



46 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

and character of its inhabitants, possess a dis- 
tinct unity; for all alike bear the impress of an 
arid climate ;" and, we may add, the impress of 
an arid religion — Islam. 

Two main types of civilization are found in 
these countries: the nomad life of a scattered 
and sparse population; and intensive agriculture 
in irrigated oases, which have become centres of 
population and where we find small cities. Our 
illustrations of the Bedouin children in Arabia, 
and of the naked lads sporting in the sand, 
are typical. The description given by Eev. A. D. 
Dixey of conditions in Baluchistan applies equally 
to Arabia and Southern Persia : 

"The vast majority of these people are nomadic 
in their habit, wandering from plain to mountain 
or vice versa, according to the season of the year. 
During the winter their goat's-hair tents or grass 
huts are to be seen everywhere where water exists. 
Their wealth consists in land, camels, goats, sheep, 
donkeys, horses, and occasionally a few oxen. 
During the seasons of their migration it is an 
interesting sight to see the Bolan Pass. The whole 
pass is filled with one continual procession of 
Brahuis, their families, their flocks and herds. 
Here may be seen a loaded camel with a woman 
and one or two children seated on top, while sev- 
eral fowls, tied with pieces of string to different 
loads, are flapping their wings and endeavouring 




8 



ENVIRONMENT 47 

to find some secure foothold. Then perhaps there 
may be a donkey with a load of eight or nine kids 
or lambs, whose heads protrude from the saddle- 
bags which hang on either side ; while around are 
men, women, children of all ages leading camels, 
driving flocks, running after donkeys that wander 
from the path. Their possessions are of the sim- 
plest description. A blanket made of goat's hair, 
supported by three bent sticks, forms their tent ; a 
pile of quilts serves for their bedding ; these, with 
a few native rugs on which to sit or entertain a 
guest, several cooking-pots, a mill to grind corn, 
a sword and perhaps a gun and one or two little 
things, include all their worldly goods.' ' 

Under such circumstances one can well under- 
stand that the vast majority of the women and 
children are illiterate, that ignorance and super- 
stition prevail, and that physically only the fittest 
can endure hardship and survive. In no part of 
the world does the newborn child meet less 
preparation for its reception than among the 
Bedouin. A goat's-hair tent offers no luxuries, 
and the mother is so burdened with cares that she 
has little time to spend on her offspring. Cyril 
Crossland gives a picture of the daily life of the 
women of the Eed Sea coast. It is the same 
weary round and common task of the nomad 
women everywhere : 

"Besides cooking and the care of children and 



48 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

animals the women have certain manufactures. 
The palm-leaf matting for the outer covering of 
the tents and houses is bought ready made, but 
the inner coarse blanket material is woven at home 
from the hair of the owner's goats, which is col- 
lected and spun into coarse thread as it becomes 
available. The spinning is entirely by hand, the 
thread being merely wound on a dangling stick 
which is kept spinning by hand. When a dozen 
or so large balls of this grey-black and brown 
thread have accumulated, a rough weaving frame 
of three sticks is pegged out on the sand, and 
weaving goes on for some days." 

What is true of the nomad population is true 
of the masses in the villages and cities as far as 
regards home comforts. Most of the village 
dwellings are only lighted by holes in the wall, 
bedsteads and cooking utensils constituting 
nearly all the furniture. A typical village along 
the Nile or the Tigris, in the midst of palm groves 
and green fields, is very picturesque on a photo- 
graph, but on nearer approach it does not have 
much of the atmosphere of home. Untidiness, 
squalor, and vermin are everywhere. Privacy 
is impossible. The children huddle together, 
when the weather is cold, in the dismal interiors, 
or else sit on the bare ground listlessly, while 
flies swarm over their faces ; or they may be seen 
busily engaged collecting cow and camel dung in 



ENVIRONMENT 49 

baskets, which they take home to be made into 
flat cakes and stuck along the house walls or 
upon the roof to dry for winter fuel. 

The environment of Moslem childhood bears 
the same stamp of degradation even in lands that 
are more highly favoured. A newspaper corre- 
spondent, after three months' sojourn in Algiers, 
says that this land is in parts as beautiful as a 
garden of Eden, but everywhere shows tokens of 
the blight of Islam. 

" A few days ago we walked through the Kasbah 
in Algiers. The Kasbah is that part of the city 
where the Arabs live. It was an experience to 
make one's heart sad. The Kasbah has been 
called a human rabbit-warren. The streets are so 
narrow that, in many places, one might stand in 
the middle and touch the walls on either side. 
Here the natives live and work and trade. Food- 
stuffs — the very sight of which was nauseating— 
were on sale in alleys, where the smells proclaimed 
the deadly pollution of the atmosphere. Dark pas- 
sages, narrow stairways, and doors in unex- 
pected places suggested a labyrinth as intricate, 
dangerous, and mysterious as the Catacombs. 
The people who haunted these abodes, mostly 
shrouded in white, were silent and sad as though 
they might be corpses wandering from their 
tombs.' ' 

Word for word this description would apply 



50 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

to life in Baghdad or Yarkand, Moslem Delhi or 
Kerman. 

One distinction stands out clearly between the 
town dwellers of the heat belt and the nomads 
in this connection — namely, the greater seclusion 
of women in the former case. Ellsworth Hunt- 
ington draws the contrast so clearly that we take 
the liberty of quoting two paragraphs on the sub- 
ject from his book "The Pulse of Asia": 

"Mohammedanism, as every one knows, incul- 
cates the seclusion of woman, and makes of her 
nothing but a stupid drudge to do man's work, or 
a light plaything for his pleasure. Wherever peo- 
ple of Moslem faith gather in towns and cities, 
as I have seen them in Turkey, India, Persia, 
Asiatic Russia, and Chinese Turkestan, his ideal 
prevails. In the crowded villages and cities 
women can do their work behind high mud walls, 
and can be confined to certain unseen rooms when 
male guests visit the house. The support of the 
family does not depend upon them, and their 
activities are almost wholly dependent on the will 
of their husbands. It is but rarely necessary that 
they should leave the house, and when they do, 
there is usually no work to be done and it is easy 
to keep their faces covered. Even the peasant 
women, who must work in the fields, keep aloof, 
and come in contact with men but little. Only 
the very poor, or those who are confessedly im- 



ENVIRONMENT 51 

moral, go about in public with uncovered faces. 
The evil effect of all this has been often described, 
and needs no comment. ' ' 

He then goes on to show how the case is wholly 
different among nomads, and that the contrast of 
woman's position among nomadic Mohammedan 
populations is due not to racial differences but to 
the liberties of the nomad social system from be- 
fore the days of Islam: 

"The house of a nomad must of necessity be 
small, and cannot contain two rooms, save under 
the most exceptional circumstances. A visitor 
must enter the room where the women are at work, 
or else the women must work outside ; and there, 
of course, they cannot be prevented from being 
seen by men other than those of their families. 
Then, again, at the time of migrations there are 
no shelters left standing, and the women cannot 
possibly be kept concealed. . . . The nomad 
woman must work in semi-publicity, and cannot 
be bothered with a troublesome veil. Her free- 
dom from seclusion does much, both morally and 
mentally, to elevate her above her less fortunate 
sisters of the villages.' ' ' 

A picture of Persian village life was given by 
a girl of twelve, born and brought up in such en- 
vironment. She was asked by a missionary, 
"How old are you?" "Forty, who knows?" 
"Can you read?" With a laugh she replied, 



52 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

" Girls can't read." And when the same ques- 
tion was asked of a woman who stood by, she 
said : * ' This is our life : to beat the clothes on the 
rocks in the river ; to mould cakes of manure ; to 
carry heavy loads; to spin, sew, weave, bake, 
make cheese; bear children; grow old and tooth- 
less ; and for all this we get only blows and abuse, 
and live in constant fear of divorce. Have we 
time to read?" 

The present decay of the Moslem world is at- 
tributed by many to the rule of the Turks; but 
Islam has had other rulers and the results have 
been sadly similar. The Arabs, the Persians, and 
the Mongols introduced epochs of civilization in 
Egypt, Morocco, and Spain. They achieved great 
things in architecture and literature. In this 
respect the Turks have done little or nothing, but 
the result of the Mongolian civilization in India, 
that of the Arabs in Egypt and Morocco, and of 
the Persians in their own land, have been equally 
unsatisfactory socially. Dr. Eichter, in sum- 
ming up the causes of decay in Islam, puts the 
chief emphasis on the moral deterioration due to 
polygamy and low ideals of home life. He says : 
" Sound family life is impossible. The children 
grow up in the poisonous atmosphere of intrigue, 
fleshly lust, bad language, and shameless licen- 
tiousness. They are polluted from youth 
up." 



i 




1 " . 


^ • ,,. :''>■.' .''--r' : •■ ■' -•'• 


"-■ : - : ^ 




w f Ik 




HI 










1 


§j83r < 


'■■•■■'. :: ' : "" : ' '"' l **<--'^* 




." ' . ..,:■■■ 


10 




..-. 


• ji^^^ik'iOT^ 












N? M 


: 





ENVIRONMENT 53 

Nor is it fair to attribute all these social condi- 
tions and this backward civilization to the influ- 
ence of climate and the heat belt. Although there 
is much truth in what Professor Margoliouth has 
stated, the fact remains that Islam has extended 
far to the north and south of the heat belt, and 
has, outside of this area, a population of no less 
than 66,000,000. Yet in the vales of Kashmir, a 
paradise of natural beauty, in European Turkey, 
in the fertile stretches of Bengal and the Punjab, 
and in China, the social and moral environment 
of Moslem children is not greatly different. The 
contrast between the Moslem and the Christian 
quarters of Constantinople is evident, as a Mo- 
hammedan pointed out to Dr. Dwight. Looking 
down on the great metropolis, he said: 

"The greatness and the beauty of this city 
makes us all proud. But when one looks upon it 
from this height one sees a strange contrast be- 
tween its different quarters. Here, extending far 
away to the city wall, and there, and there, and 
there, are great masses of dark-coloured, ragged- 
looking wooden houses. Surrounded by the dark 
masses, and especially beyond the Golden Horn, 
in Pera and Galata, are smaller groups of large, 
well-kept, and trim light-coloured houses, often 
of stone or brick. The contrast makes me as a 
Mohammedan both puzzled and pained, for the 
dingy ragged masses of houses mark the Moham- 



54 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

medan quarters of the city, but the bright-looking 
groups are the houses of the Christians. Why do 
my people seem less capable than these others V 9 

Concerning the effect of Islam in elevating the 
pagan races of Africa and thus improving the 
environment of childhood, there is conflicting 
testimony. As far as the externals of civilization 
are concerned, there is not the least doubt that 
Islam lifts the pagan races somewhat higher, but 
whether this is true of their moral and social life 
is a disputed point. The testimony is well 
summed up by Captain Orr of Northern Nigeria : 

* ' Even if it be true that Islam lays a dead hand 
on a people who have reached a certain standard 
of civilization, it is impossible to deny its quicken- 
ing influence on African races in a backward state 
of evolution. Amongst the pagan tribes of North- 
ern Nigeria it is making its converts every day, 
sweeping away drunkenness, cannibalism, and 
fetishism; mosques and markets spring into ex- 
istence, and the pagan loses his exclusiveness, and 
learns to mingle with his fellow-men. To the 
negro Islam is not sterile or lifeless. The dead 
hand is not for him. 

"Not that the spread of Islam among pagan 
tribes is wholly beneficial. Its appeal to his sen- 
sual nature is not without its effect. The very 
civilization which Islam brings, teaches its vices 
as well as its virtues. But when the balance is 




A BEGGAR BOY FROM ALGIERS 
At a barred window. Who will unbar the gates of his soul? 



ENVIRONMENT 55 

struck between Islamism and paganism, there can 
be but little doubt which of the scales weighs the 
heavier. ' ' 

Dr. Frederick Starr, professor of Anthropol- 
ogy in Chicago University, however, who has 
travelled in several West African countries, testi- 
fies to the fact that he never saw a Mohammedan 
town that was better than a pagan town, and that 
the apparent superiority of certain tribes who 
have embraced Islam is due to racial qualities 
rather than to the religion adopted. And his 
testimony is corroborated by that of the Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of French Dahomey, who stated 
that " Islam has not introduced any new industry, 
nor contributed to the development of natural 
resources' ' in that part of Africa. 

Whatever economic advantages the advent of 
Islam may bring, and however great the contrast 
between the civilization of Baluchistan and 
Turkey or China and Morocco or Kashmir and 
Arabia, the social life of Islam, its intellectual 
backwardness, and its moral corruption are so 
much alike that we can only conclude that these 
conditions obtain not in spite of, but because of 
the religion of the people. The law of cause and 
effect has operated for over a thousand years 
under every possible natural and political en- 
vironment, among Semites, negroes, Mongolians, 
Aryans, and Slavs; yet the results are similar, 



56 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

and are an unanswerable indictment of the in- 
adequacy of the religion of Mohammed. 

In China, for example, there is no doubt that 
the Moslem women occupy a better place than 
their sisters in lands where Islam is supreme. 
Here they are not veiled nor isolated by the 
harem life. There is a greater interest in the 
education of girls, and separate mosques for 
women exist. Yet even here, we are told, the line 
of demarcation between Moslem and non-Moslem 
is as great as between Chinese and foreigners ; and 
one who has spent years in China, especially 
among the Mohammedans, writes that she has no 
hesitation in saying that the social and moral con- 
dition of Moslem women is "infinitely sadder 
than that of the heathen Chinese women." 1 
That socially and ethically Islam is not an ad- 
vance on Confucianism is generally admitted. 
Martin Hartmann, at the conclusion of his article 
on "China" in the "Encyclopedia of Islam," ex- 
presses the hope that this religion will not continue 
to spread, for "it is not a religion compatible with 
civilization, and is emphatically the bitter enemy 
of culture." 

Java affords another instance where national 
custom has modified Moslem teaching. The 
moral and material position of women among the 



1 " Mohammedan Women of China.' 
(Chinese Recorder, February, 1913.) 



By Mrs. Soderstrom. 



ENVIRONMENT 57 

Malays has always been a high one, because the 
matriarchate, with all its consequences, has been 
at its foundation. Although Islam permits polyg- 
amy, the Javanese therefore leave the practice 
to the wealthy and eminent. Seclusion is also un- 
known. "In spite of Islam,' ' says Cabaton, "the 
Javanese woman goes abroad unveiled, shares 
the interests of her husband, has her place at 
festivals, and speaks freely at home. Both hus- 
band and wife, moreover, so continually work side 
by side that this community of labour strengthens 
the position of the Javanese woman, although 
this does not equal that of her European sisters." 
Polygamy in Java may be rare among Moslems, 
but divorce and the exchange of wives are fear- 
fully common. One of our correspondents re- 
marks that even here "the fatalism taught by 
Islam places the woman in a servile relationship. 
She is considered a creature of no particular 
value." 

The condition of women under Islam is every- 
where the same in respect to the institution of 
marriage, and in consequence, as regards her so- 
cial position. There is no hope of effectually 
remedying the home life in the world of Islam 
save by the elevation of its motherhood. Moslems 
themselves admit this evil in their system. H. H. 
the Aga Khan, spoke of this as the greatest bar- 
rier to progress because ' ' the seclusion of women 



58 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

results in keeping half of the community in ig- 
norance and degradation ;' ' and Mansur Fahmy, 
an educated Egyptian, has shown, in a recent 
critical study 1 on the condition of women, that 
her position under Islam has gradually deterio- 
rated. He proves this from Mohammedan litera- 
ture and from the Koran itself. In Arabia, 
before Islam, her status was higher, and the veil 
did not exist before the time of the Prophet. The 
successive stages in what the author calls the 
degradation of womanhood are traced in the his- 
tory of the caliphs and of the later dynasties. He 
also gives an excellent summary of the low posi- 
tion of woman in Moslem law, owing to polygamy 
and divorce. Her incapacity is emphasized by the 
fact that both as a witness and in the inheritance 
of property her sex is counted against her. And 
because this is all based upon the Koran and the 
official teaching of Islam, it has had its effect in 
every land and among all nations. The Moslem 
type of civilization can be recognized everywhere 
in the place assigned womanhood, and by the re- 
sults of such social teaching upon childhood. So 
true is this that when one reads a standard book 
on the manners and customs of modern Egyp- 
tians, like that of Lane, he has in reality a pic- 
ture of Moslem home life not only in Egypt, but 

1 " La Condition de la Femme dans la Tradition et revolution 
de l'lslamisme." 



ENVIRONMENT 59 

in Morocco, North India, and Central Asia. The 
outstanding features and fundamental lines in 
the picture are the same; the only difference is 
that of local colour and in matters that are sec- 
ondary. When Edward Westermarck, there- 
fore, wrote his great work on the "Marriage 
Ceremonies in Morocco/ ' he practically gave a 
history of Moslem marriage throughout the 
world, citing parallel cases among Moslems in 
other lands. 

The testimony of missionaries from Northern 
Nigeria is that the degradation of womanhood 
followed the introduction of Islam, and that she 
has a distinctly lower place in the Mohammedan 
community than she occupies among pagans. 
Gottfried Simon gives the same testimony in re- 
gard to Malaysia, stating that "the position of 
Moslem women is lower than that of her heathen 
sisters. Divorce and polygamy are rare in heathen 
districts ; in purely Mohammedan districts, on the 
other hand, divorce is the order of the day. Mo- 
hammedan family life is often below the level of 
that of the heathen. . . . Disorderly conduct 
among the young people marks the arrival of 
Islam in the country." 

A threefold burden rests, as an inheritance of 
ill, upon childhood throughout the Moslem world, 
namely, the evil effects of child marriage, super- 
stitious medical practices, and fatalism in the care 



60 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

of infants. One may trace the effect of these 
customs and beliefs, all based on Islam, in the 
physical and moral condition of Moslem child- 
hood, and find it the same, whether in Persia or 
the Philippines, Manchuria or Morocco, Bulgaria 
or Bokhara, Cape Town or Calcutta. Heredity 
and environment have here produced similar 
effects. In a symposium on Islam from a medical 
standpoint, physicians from Kashmir, Mombasa, 
Baluchistan, Palestine, Arabia, Morocco, Ni- 
geria, and Turkey were united in their testimony 
that ignorance, fatalism, and superstition darken 
the lives of Moslem women and children, blunt- 
ing the child's finer feelings and handicapping 
him at the outset by insanitary conditions, dirt, 
and neglect. In the treatment of women before 
and after childbirth there is often actual cruelty, 
with its consequent results on the life of the child. 
Child marriage is specially spoken of; not the 
marriage of children one to another, but the mar- 
riage of little girls to men many years their 
seniors. "The saddest cases," writes Dr. Brig- 
stocke of Palestine, "are those of little girls 
who ought to be enjoying games and school life, 
seriously injured, if not maimed for life, as a re- 
sult of this horrible practice." (For sad details 
on this part of the subject, see The Moslem 
World, Vol. Ill, pp. 367-385.) 

We must remember in this connection that Mos- 



ENVIRONMENT 61 

lem practice in regard to childbirth and marriage 
is based upon Mohammed's example and Table 
Talk on the subject. This is found both in the 
Koran and in the Traditions. Mohammed's 
knowledge of medicine and hygiene, not to speak 
of embryology, was largely due to one of his 
friends, El Harith bin Kalida, who might be 
called Mohammed's Luke. The ideas promul- 
gated in the Koran have been fixed forever be- 
cause it is a divine revelation. This is especially 
true of those passages which contain his unscien- 
tific statements concerning conception, birth, 
weaning, etc. The last is postponed, according to 
Mohammed's revelation, for two years (Surah 
2:233) ! We find curious instances of errors in 
anatomy, such as the connection between the heart 
and the windpipe (Surah 56:82), and the compo- 
sition of milk and blood (Surah 16 : 68). Both the 
practice of astrology and the using of charms for 
the evil eye found their foundation in the Koran, 
and superstitious efficacy is ascribed to honey as 
a panacea (Surah 16:71). Although the legisla- 
tion as regards clothing, sleep, the bath, and food 
are generally hygienic, and we can specially 
recommend the prohibition of alcohol, the fatal- 
istic teaching of Islam as regards epidemics is 
well known. Dr. Opitz x shows that the whole 
Moslem system, as based upon the practice and 

1 Dr. Karl Opitz. " Die Medizin im Koran." Stuttgart, 1906. 



62 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

teaching of the Prophet, is utterly opposed to 
eugenics, and that the position assigned to 
womanhood has had its terrible effects upon Mo- 
hammedan peoples everywhere. 

Fatalism has much to do with the enormous 
death rate of children in Moslem lands during 
epidemics of contagious diseases. There is no 
segregation ; no attempt to prevent children with 
a light attack of smallpox from mingling freely 
with healthy children. "Those whom God in- 
tends to live will live; those whom He means to 
die will die. What difference does it make?" 

It is true that civilization and modern education 
have modified these conditions among the en- 
lightened class, but they form only a small per- 
centage of the masses ; and as regards the moral 
welfare of a child brought up in such an environ- 
ment as we have sketched, it is also true, as Cap- 
tain Wyman Bury has pointed out, that "the 
curse is double-edged and cuts both ways : Islam 
degenerates under civilized conditions, and civili- 
zation becomes slack and inert in conjunction with 
Islam, within the four corners of which all Mos- 
lem art and science and literature has to keep." 
Generally speaking, the immoral atmosphere and 
the environment in which Moslem children are 
born and brought up, is one that makes pure child- 
hood well-nigh impossible. Missionaries and 
others who have lived long in Moslem lands feel 







IttS 


:'; 



, , _ 




■ 






5 ' 




' Hi 





MOSLEM CHILDREN FROM CAPE TOWN 

1. Soldier's child given to Mohammedans. 

2. A little girl of English and Greek parents, being brought up as 

a Mohammedan. 

3. Child of native Christian mother, turned Moslem and now 

married to an Indian Mohammedan. 

4. Two children whose mother became a Mohammedan. 



ENVIRONMENT 63 

this environment as a real thing, although it may 
be indefinable, and have a desire to escape its in- 
fluence ; or at least to remove their children from 
it at as early an age as possible. 1 There have 
even been instances of adult Europeans who have 
been drawn down in the vortex of a Moslem en- 
vironment to their own destruction; and the 
present methods of Moslem propagandism in 
Cape Town, where children, both white and 
coloured, are taken over by the Mohammedans 
and early given in marriage to the believers, bind 
them irrevocably to Islam. 2 What can be sadder 
than this lot for a Christian child? 

One word more should be added at the close of 
this chapter in regard to the heritage of girlhood 
as a result of Islam. Because of early marriage 
she has no real childhood ; she looks forward with 
fear and dread to marriage with a man whom she 
may never have seen ; she is early trained in all 
those ways of deceit which are the protection of 
the weak and helpless against strength and au- 
thority, and jealousy is one of her ruling passions. 
Unwelcome at birth, always considered inferior 
to her brothers and father and husband, and sur- 
rounded by so much in this religion that means 

1 " The Influence of a Mohammedan Environment on the Mis- 
sionary." W. A. Shedd in The Moslem World, Vol. III. 

2 " The Moslem Menace in South Africa." Missionary Review 
of the World, October, 1914. See also the recent novel on this 
topic, "The Lure of Islam." By C. Prowse, London, 1914. 



64. CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

degradation and humiliation, who can blame her 
if she is not happy ! One of the leading Moslem 
papers in Cairo, El Mueyyard (August 15, 1911), 
contained an article by a Moslem writer on the 
conditions of home life in Egypt, and appealing 
for reform. He spoke of rescuing one of these 
child wives who was dying on account of cruel 
treatment. As we read the sad story, let us re- 
member that it was told for Moslem ears by Mos- 
lem lips. Her story was as follows : 

1 ' Some years ago my father married me to a 
much-married, much-divorced man, who was sel- 
dom satisfied with a woman for more than a year. 
If a girl had ever been allowed to choose for her- 
self, then I would have made a better choice than 
that. However, I had to obey, so I was taken to 
this man, who gave me the best possible reception 
at first; in fact, his reception to me was like the 
smile of a lion over its prey, and I lived in daily 
fear of separation just as any murderer fears his 
day of penalty. 

"I was scarcely over my confinement when I 
heard that he had married some one else, so my 
position in the house was that of utter loneliness. 
I had no friends but my tiny babe, although after 
the first shock I submitted to it as my decreed 
destiny. I carried my babe to my father's house 
and found him sick unto death, so I was left com- 
pletely alone. I begged every one I knew to write 



ENVIRONMENT 65 

to that man to ask for bread for his own babe, 
or else to release me that I might find some one 
more merciful, but he was too miserly for the first, 
and professed himself shocked at the latter. For 
a few years I worked day and night at the poison- 
ous sewing to get barely enough to keep me alive. 
Then I fell ill, and everything I possessed, even 
in the way of clothing, went for my medicine. 
The worst of all was when I wrote to the father 
of my child, begging for food. I waited and 
waited, lying here counting up all his sins and 
crimes, until one day when I was looking at 
my child's face and getting from it a little com- 
fort, that brutal tyrant rushed upon me and 
snatched the child out of my arms. There was no 
one near to hear my cries, and I spent those nights 
in utter despair, for I had been afflicted in hus- 
band, father, and child, finding no one to stretch 
out a helping hand nor even a pitying eye to me. 
More than twenty wretched nights passed and I 
lay ill, dreaming that I saw my little babe being 
beaten by its cruel father at home and I here 
unable to rescue it. And now I feel the darkness 
of death is creeping over my sight, and I am de- 
parting from this world, without seeing my baby 
for a single glance to carry with me in my jour- 
ney to the other world. ' ' 

Under such conditions as have been described in 
this chapter these millions of children live — and 



66 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

die. Our task is not to save a few of them from 
their fate. It is much larger; namely, to create 
a new environment, to purify the social atmos- 
phere, and to conquer and destroy in Christ's 
name the forces, sanctified by religion, that are 
causing these little souls to perish. 



The night lies dark upon the earth, and we have light; 
So many have to grope their way, and we have sight; 
One path is theirs and ours, of sin and care; 
But we are borne along, and they their burden bear. 
Footsore, heart-weary, faint they on the way, 
Mute in their sorrows, while we kneel and pray. 
Glad are they of a stone on which to rest, 
While we are pillowed on the Father's breast." 



Ill 



BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL 
CONDITIONS 



e< Each for himself, we live our lives apart, 

Heirs of an age that turns us all to stone; 
Yet ever Nature, thrust from out the heart, 
Comes back to claim her own. 

" Still we have something left of that fair seed 

God gave for birthright; still the sound of tears 
Hurts us, and children in their helpless need 
Still call to listening ears." 

— Owen Seaman — From " In a Good Cause." 

" Can we then wonder that the child's entrance into life should 
be accompanied by those plaintive cries so well described by the 
Latin poet Lucretius ( ' De Natura Rerum,' V : 223 ) : 'A child 
at its birth, like a mariner cast ashore by the angry waves, lies 
prostrate on the earth, naked, speechless, destitute of all the aids 
of existence, from the moment when it reaches the shores of light, 
torn from its mother's bosom by the efforts of nature; and it 
fills the place it has entered with dismal wailings. And such 
distress is but natural! There lies before him to traverse a life 
afflicted with bitter woes/ " — Perez — " The First Three Years of 
Childhood." 



Ill 



BIRTH, INFANCY, AND PHYSICAL 
CONDITIONS 

FEOM the days of Plato, the right of the 
child to be well-born has been a subject of 
discussion, for the sake of the general wel- 
fare of society. The father of the modern science 
of eugenics, Francis Galton, wrote his classical 
work on the subject, "Hereditary Genius," in 
1869, and defined eugenics as "the study of agen- 
cies, under social control, which may improve or 
impair the racial qualities of future generations, 
either physical or mental." How far environ- 
ment and heredity affect the individual is a ques- 
tion yet unsettled. No one denies, however, the 
immense influence of both upon infancy and child- 
hood. Charles Darwin, for example, wrote : " If 
we do not prevent the reckless, vicious, and other- 
wise inferior members of society from increasing 
at a quicker rate than the better class of men, the 
nation will retrograde, as has occurred too often 
in the history of the world. ' ' If heredity and en- 
vironment have such a determining influence in 
civilized lands, we will not be surprised to learn 



70 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

that Moslem childhood is handicapped by the en- 
vironment and the conditions that obtain through 
long heredity in the home life and social sphere 
already described. 

The testimony from every part of the mission 
field is a sad commentary on this subject. A 
missionary writes from Constantine, Algeria: 
" Physically the natives of Algeria are, with few 
exceptions, tainted with syphilis. This betrays 
itself physically in diseases of the skin and blood ; 
morally, in a want of energy and determination. ' ' 
Others in the same country confirm this testi- 
mony. Scrofula and consumption are hereditary 
among the poorer classes in Tripoli, yet because 
the weaklings all die in babyhood, the children 
that survive are physically strong. One who has 
spent a long time at Casablanca, Morocco, says: 
"Immorality and frequency of divorce, and the 
total lack of hygiene combined with superstitious 
practices, have sapped the brains and constitu- 
tions of quite eighty per cent of the children. ' 9 A 
physician writing from the same part of the 
world says that at birth Moslem children compare 
favourably with European children, but at eight 
or nine months they become weakly, through 
hereditary disease or lack of care. The children 
in Chinese Turkestan, we are told, suffer much 
from hereditary venereal diseases. "Goitre, 
which affects children physically and intellectu- 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 71 

ally, is terribly prevalent in Yarkand. Smallpox 
is very virulent, thousands of children dying from 
it every year. All efforts to uplift child life are 
completely counterbalanced by bad influences in 
their homes, where immorality and gambling 
poison the atmosphere.' ' 

To understand the conditions of Moslem child- 
hood, therefore, it is first of all necessary to 
realize the frightful mortality among infants. 
Statistics collected on this subject, both from gov- 
ernment returns and the careful investigations of 
travellers and medical missionaries, would be 
well-nigh incredible were not they mutually cor- 
roborative from every field under investigation. 
Even allowing for possible over-estimate, we find 
that the infant mortality in Moslem lands is 
placed at from fifty to eighty per cent. 

To begin with Egypt: The statistical returns 
for the Department of Public Health, 1913, show 
that over one-half of the children born, die before 
they are five years of age. Out of a total of 75,967 
births, 2,981 were still-born, 20,586 died before 
the end of the first year, and 9,210 before the end 
of the second year. There has been severe criti- 
cism of the Egyptian Government in regard to 
infant mortality, but a writer in the Egyptian 
Gazette (March 8, 1913) shows that a large part 
of the evil is due to the treatment of the child after 
birth. He does not deal with the causes that pre- 



72 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

cede birth, and which are also patent to all those 
who know the cruelties of Egyptian home life : 

" There is no danger to the infant at the time 
of birth. It arrives all right, inheriting its par- 
ents' healthy constitution. It thrives quite well 
as long as it is on the breast milk. Illness sets in 
when other nutriment is given, or at the weaning 
stage. Then anything to appease the wailings of 
the hungry infant, in order that the lazy and ig- 
norant mother may get off duty and sleep — sugar 
cane, cucumber, anything indeed that is handy and 
quiets the child for the moment. Stomach de- 
rangement naturally ensues, followed speedily by 
diarrhoea, developing often into dysentery. Of 
nursing, the Arab woman knows nothing. The suf- 
ferer is allowed to wallow on a damp mud floor, 
with no sign of flannel to protect the abdomen 
from chill. When the mother's milk fails, cow or 
rather buffalo milk, which is much too strong, is 
substituted, given out of unclean vessels, often 
sour, and filthy from germs. Under these condi- 
tions disease is rapid and death quickly follows. 
Thousands of healthily born children are sacri- 
ficed to the ignorance and laziness of the Arab 
mother. ' ' 

The statistics given concerning infant mortal- 
ity in other lands are equally indicative of the 
fatal environment which the Moslem child enters 
at birth. In Palestine it is a common thing for a 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 73 

man to say he has had twenty-four children, of 
whom only three or four are living. A writer, 
speaking of infant mortality in Marsovan, says : 
"The children die like flies. The weaklings all 
perish ; only the hardy have a chance to survive. ' ' 
A physician from Persia writes: "There are 
more childhood diseases here than in any place of 
which I know. It is estimated that the mortality 
is eighty-five per cent. Another estimate states 
that only one child out of ten reaches the age of 
twenty, though this may be rather an extreme 
opinion." The mortality of children is specially 
large in the great cities of the Moslem world, 
Cairo, Constantinople, Bombay, Calcutta, and 
others. In Indian cities the death rate among 
Moslem children is higher than among other 
classes. The Health Officer of Calcutta in a re- 
cent report says: 

"Attention has already been drawn to the 
heavy incidence of tuberculosis among females. 
As the females, particularly in an Oriental city, 
where a large portion of them are purdahnashin, 
are more constantly subjected to the influence of 
their environment, the heavy incidence of tubercle 
among those residing in insanitary and congested 
areas indicates very clearly the powerful influence 
of these conditions on the prevalence of tubercu- 
losis. Reference has already been made to the 
fact that the zenana ? or female apartments ? are 



74 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

usually shut in and hidden away at the back of 
the house, and hence are particularly ill venti- 
lated. Muhammadans suffered more severely 
than Hindus during 1912, the difference being most 
marked among the females, owing to the stricter 
observance of the purdah system among the 
poorer classes. Of every thousand children born 
among Muhammadans 306 die, among Hindus 248, 
and only 138 among non- Asiatics. One in ten of 
the infants born die in their first week, and these 
deaths are largely due to preventable causes, de- 
bility and prematurity, owing to early marriage, 
and tetanus owing to neglect or improper methods 
of treatment. In other words, thirty-three per 
cent of the deaths among infants under one 
month are preventable. Such a state of affairs 
ought not to be tolerated in any civilized commu- 
nity. 

"As their entrance into the world is celebrated 
by eating good things," Miss Henrietta Manasseh 
of Brumana, Syria, writes, "so food forms a 
very large part of the indulgence afforded 
to children as they grow up. All sorts of indi- 
gestible things are given to babies. To strong 
children this seems to do no special harm, but 
with the delicate there are often disastrous re- 
sults, attributed naturally to evil spirits. Many 
a model mother would shudder at the sight of a 
child of two years munching a raw cucumber or 



-:-s^i^*^ "-'r-l 




ijll "■ '/^n»^ 




~* .-*-• '^H^iimi, I 


IP afc 






'■ ' ' -. ' -:■- " - 











t£ 


jg 


$ 7 '- i 


"^ 




mfcwr It 




•.»**■% 






^H 


^ - f . 


: %'l 




I * • ? !X«tL 


• ■ ■ 







PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 75 

green apple or apricot or a baby in arms busily 
chewing brown bread.' ' 

In Morocco, according to Budgett Meakin, little 
children suffer from "falling sickness' ' and in- 
fant mortality is exceedingly high. He states that 
he has seen "youngsters hardly able to toddle, 
naked from the waist down, sitting about in pud- 
dles on a cold tiled pavement of a rich man's 
courtyard." The testimony of John G. Wishard, 
M.D., who spent twenty years in Persia, is that 
lack of knowledge of ordinary rules of health ac- 
counts for the large death roll among children. 
"I have seen children less than six months old 
bathed in pools at the side of the road when the 
thermometer was below the freezing point. In- 
fanticide is not very common because of the love 
of the Persians for children, but it does happen 
not infrequently when the baby is a girl." 

Mrs. C. S. G. Mylrea reports the following in- 
cident from Kuweit, Arabia : 

"The daughter-in-law's baby was not well. He 
had fever and a sore tongue. His mouth, face, 
and gown were covered with crimson paint, some- 
thing they are very fond of using for sores. I 
asked if she wanted medicine for him. She said, 
'If you can give me something for the sore tongue, 
all right.' But I saw that they intended using 
their own remedies, and I heard a day or two 
later that they had cauterized the sore place with 



76 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 



a piece of iron heated red hot. As one goes in 
and out of the honses one wonders if these people 
will ever be willing to admit that their way is not 
a success. 

"One afternoon while calling at a Seyyid 's 
house (a direct descendant of Mohammed) I no- 
ticed that the grandmother of the family, a Sey- 
yid, was seated in the courtyard on a sort of plat- 
form above us all. I soon found out why. After 
a little while a woman with sore eyes came in. 
The Seyyid was most cordial and told her to come 
and sit on the platform with her. Then she put 
her hands on the woman's head and repeated por- 
tions from the Koran for about ten minutes. 
When she had finished the woman got up at once 
and went away. A little later in came a woman 
with a baby with fever. She was invited to sit 
on the platform, and the old Seyyid put her hand 
on the baby and repeated more verses from the 
Koran, blowing on the child every few seconds.' ' 
And here is an illustration of Islam's darker side, 
from Palestine: 

"I want to try and describe something which 
took place here in Tyre," says Miss J. A. Lord. 
"I am afraid that it will horrify you even as it 
horrified me. And do you know that I think I 
could fill a whole Chamber of Horrors if I had the 
chance. 

"Well! it was a very hot day; the common 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 77 

which lies on the sea front of the house was a 
dried-up, parched, sunburnt waste. A message 
was brought to me that some women were digging 
holes on rubbish heaps on this common, not far 
away from one of the gates of the compound. 
'And what are the holes for?' I said. 'To put 
four poor little babies in, and these mites are all 
sick, and each baby will be placed up to its neck 
in the hole.' And just as I was trying to under- 
stand about this, another message was brought. 
'Yes, they have put the poor babies in.' Can you 
bear to imagine this? Four poor little heads — all 
crying, all frightened, buried in a rubbish heap! 
You say, please tell us what does this terrible 
thing mean? This is a superstitious rite or cere- 
mony which can only take place on Friday at 
noon. The completion of the rite is that a loose 
basket is placed over the head of each of the poor 
babies, and as the noon cry is called from the 
mosque, the old woman who conducts this cere- 
mony will strike the top of each bask? + and calls 
out, '0 Satan, come and take back your children, 
and give us our children. Send the same Jinneiah 
who took our healthy children and brought us 
these sickly ones ; do not unto us this harm. ' This 
is repeated over each child. Evidently the idea is 
that his Satanic majesty on Friday will conde- 
scend to listen to this performance at noon ; that 
he is in a good temper when he hears the call 



78 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

from the mosque, — ' There is no god but one God, 
and Mohammed is the Apostle of God.' 

' ' However, as soon as I heard of this I sent out 
a message to the women that if these babies were 
not at once taken up out of their holes, I would 
come out and take them out myself. The poor 
mites were taken out in double-quick time, for 
when I went out to follow up my message a few 
minutes later, there was no sign of women or 
babies, — only four sad holes! You will not be 
much surprised to hear that a few days later two 
of these babies died. ' ' 

Mission hospitals in Moslem lands are a start- 
ling revelation of the heartlessness and incredible 
ignorance of many Moslem mothers. One has 
only to visit these hospitals for women and chil- 
dren and hear the stories they relate as common- 
place, to understand the high death rate. If 
the infant mortality of a people is a barometer 
of its social progress, then Islam ranks low as a 
religion of power. 

Doughty, the Arabian traveller, tells of a 
Bedouin couple whose child of six years, " naked 
as a worm, lay cowering from the cold in his 
mother's arms; and he had been thus naked all 
the winter, at an altitude (here) of four thousand 
feet. It is a wonder they may outlive such evil 
days. A man came in who was clothed as I never 
saw another nomad, for he had upon him a home- 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 79 

spun mantle of tent cloth; but the wind blew 
through his heavy carpet garment. I found a 
piece of calico for the poor mother, to make her 
child a little coat." Yet the Bedouin children at 
least have some compensation in pure air and 
God's sunlight. It is the children of the towns 
that suffer the most from lack of them. Who can 
remain indifferent to the cry of the outcast chil- 
dren of Kashgar, Chinese Turkestan, typical of 
similar needs and sorrows elsewhere? " These 
homeless and deserted children live in the burial- 
ground, outside the city ; near the dead they find 
that refuge which the living deny them. . . . 
Almost naked, covered with only a few old rags, 
barefooted and bareheaded, they are exposed to 
the cold which makes them freeze, their hunger 
becomes insupportable, sleep comes, and with it 
the angel of death whose kiss releases them from 
all the misery of earth-life. ' ' (Missionary Re- 
view of the World, July, 1910.) 

A missionary on the borders of Afghanistan 
tells the story of a poor leper boy, which illus- 
trates at once the dreadful suffering of such Mos- 
lem childhood, and at the same time their ignorant 
opposition to the Gospel. 

"The poor leper boy has again been talking to 
me. He said, 'God took my father and mother 
and left me like this. I do not know what purpose 
my life can have. I have such relatives as will 



80 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

receive me if I have anything to give them, but 
will drive me from them if I have not, and say, 
"May God kill you!"— I shall die some day. I 
shall be found amongst the dung and filth one day, 
and no one will ask any questions. During the 
night I sleep in this piece of cloth, a dirty piece 
of rag, and the dew falls and I find myself covered 
with wet clothes. Last year the Tahsildar bought 
me a padded quilt for two rupees, but as I was 
sleeping in somebody's house it was stolen from 
me.' 

"What a melancholy look shone from the large 
sunken eyes ! His cheek-bones could be fairly well 
traced through the skin, and his aquiline nose 
made him appear more wan than perhaps he was. 
The foot which was the cause of his wasting away 
was a horrible sight; an indescribable mass of 
corruption, it had oozed and oozed and crusted 
over and over until it appeared like a shapeless 
clod of cracked mud with a great horny nail stick- 
ing through where the big toe was. As he stood, 
a watery fluid constantly oozed, and although he 
assured me that it did not pain, yet he shifted it 
incessantly in a restless way, as though conscious 
of it as a burden. He refuses to have it cut off. 
This poor lad has heard the Gospel frequently, but 
doggedly sets his face against it as though he had 
been definitely warned. ' ' 



How many little Moslem children in Baghdad 
and Busrah are born only to die, as was little 
Hussein, of whom Mrs. Worrall, M.D., tells us: 
"He is only one year and a half old, but already 
he has spinal curvature. Poor child, he does not 
get proper nourishment, and the surroundings at 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 81 

home are not conducive to good health. The 
living-room is low and dark, with scarcely any 
ventilation. The court is a very unsanitary place, 
in which four different families do their cooking, 
and empty the wash water down a central hole 
in the middle of the brick-paved court. This 
sometimes overflows, so that a pool of stagnant 
water stands in the middle of the court. Who 
knows how many millions of malaria-bearing 
mosquitoes breed there, and in the general cess- 
pool just off the hallway ! ' ' 

When we deal with statistics we must not for- 
get that we also deal with units and not only with 
the masses. Every unit has its own heart and 
sorrows, the sorrows of motherhood bereaved 
and of childhood neglected or abandoned. Des- 
perate tides of a whole world's anguish cannot 
be measured in figures. "Moosa's baby girl was 
very sick," writes Miss Uline of Bitlis, Eastern 
Turkey. i ' He told me about her as we came down 
from our mountain camp one bright October 
morning. . . . When we reached the city I told 
him I would come to see the child as soon as pos- 
sible. His attitude toward a baby girl was 
extraordinary. In the Orient no native cares 
much whether girls live or not, and when there is 
a large family of girls the father considers him- 
self greatly afflicted and wonders what sin he has 
committed to be so punished. 



82 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

"That day was a very busy one, and I was not 
able to go to Moosa's house until after sunset. 
A ragged child came running out of an alley with 
the news that the little girl had just died. We 
walked up a few stone steps into a narrow court, 
and there, outside the one-roomed house, some 
women were throwing water over the little body. 
The child was as white as any American baby 
and just as pretty. She smiled so sweetly I could 
hardly believe she was dead. I longed to lay her 
out properly and put a dainty white dress on her, 
but such a thing would have been unheard of here 
and too sudden a departure from custom to have 
attempted it. Instead, the body was rolled up 
tightly in coarse cloth, tied to a narrow board, 
and covered with a dark shawl. 

"As Mazzes (her name) was a little Kurdish 
baby, a Mohammedan Mullah was called. He 
stood by her body, which has been placed on the 
ground, stretched out his arms over her, and 
chanted a few prayers to Allah, whose will it had 
been to cause the child's death. 

"All the women went into the house when the 
Mullah came, but I stayed outside with Moosa 
and the other men. Then I went in to see the 
little wife, a mere child of fifteen or sixteen, who 
had been married eight years. Among the Kurds 
infants are often betrothed and children are mar- 




* Mm- 



V. 

v 

TV*. 







YOUNG MOSLEM GIRL FROM EQUATORIAL AFRICA 
Wearing talisman and beads. The scars are tribal marks. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 83 

ried. After sitting on the floor a few minutes, I 
went out into the court again. 

"Not twenty minutes had passed since the child 
died, but everything was over, and they were 
ready to bury her. The Mullah picked up the 
little corpse and carried it a short distance. 
Moosa, his father, a kind old Kurd, and I fol- 
lowed. The child was being taken to the ceme- 
tery, or rather, the hill of bones and tumble-down 
stones they call a cemetery in Turkey. In a few 
minutes we reached a little market where we met 
three men with spades. They walked ahead of 
our little procession. The Mullah handed the 
little dead baby to Moosa, and he carried her, his 
own child, the remainder of the way. It was dark, 
and the lights from the city made the dreary spot 
where they were to dig the grave seem darker 
in contrast." . . . 

If children are the pride and joy of the 
Western home, they are even more essential 
according to the ideals of the East. The 
Koran speaks of them as the true wealth of 
believers, and as in the olden days of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob children, but especially 
sons, are counted the greatest gift of Allah, 
a rich blessing longed for and welcomed by all 
classes everywhere. The childless Arab is often 
reproached, and is a sad and disappointed man. 
The childless wife has before her the constant fear 



84 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

of divorce to add to all the other pangs and sor- 
rows of Moslem wifehood. In Syria the warmest 
wish ever expressed by one friend to another is, 
- ' May God send you seven sons ; ? ' and in a home 
where there is a son one says, "May the time of 
your son's joy soon come," meaning his wedding- 
day. Daughters are not held in such honour, and 
the birth of a girl is nowhere welcomed as is that 
of her brother. " Al-eniha, the female (mild to 
labour and bringing forth the pastoral riches), 
is, of all animals, the better/' say the Arabians, 
"save only in mankind." (Doughty, p. 238.) 
The more Moslem a country is, the greater is the 
degradation of womanhood and the inferiority of 
the female sex. Frank A. Martin, who spent eight 
years in Afghanistan, writes in his book, ' ' Under 
the Absolute Amir": 

"In the case of a girl, the birth is passed over 
in silence, for women are of small account in 
Afghanistan, and sometimes the father will not 
go near the mother for several days when a 
daughter is born, in order to show his displeasure 
and mark his resentment for the woman not better 
acting up to his desires and wishes. 

"When one of the Amir's wives is expected to 
give birth to a child, preparations are made for 
the firing of guns and fireworks, and the feasting 
of all and sundry, in case it is a boy that comes 
into the world; but if it turns out to be a girl, 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 85 

nothing in the way of rejoicing happens, and the 
mother is left to weep alone in the disappoint- 
ment of her hopes ; for all women desire and pray 
for a man child, because then the father will visit 
her, and she is made much of, and everybody else 
fusses over and congratulates her, so that she 
enjoys a small triumph." 

The Koran itself assigns this inferior position 
to girls in its teaching regarding inheritance, 
marriage, divorce, etc., although Mohammed ap- 
pears to have disapproved of the practice of the 
pagan Arabs who buried their infant daughters 
alive. (Surah 16:5-9.) "When the birth of a 
daughter is announced to any one of them dark 
shadows settle in his face and he is sad. He 
hideth him from the people because of the ill 
tidings. Shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury 
it in the dust ? Are not their judgments wrong ! ' ' 
Nevertheless the whole attitude toward girls, 
in all Moslem lands, still follows the old preju- 
dice. In another place the Koran teaches (Surah 
4:12) : "With regard to your children, God has 
commanded you to give the sons the portion of 
two daughters." Great cries of joy, we are told, 
announce the birth of a boy in Morocco, and 
sometimes so as not to interfere with the feasting, 
the sex of a girl is concealed until the day comes 
for naming her ; as otherwise rhere would not be 
the same cause for festivities. 



86 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

A single word is necessary regarding Moslem 
teaching on legitimacy. According to the Koran 
a child born six months from the date of marriage 
has a claim to legitimacy. The general consensus 
of Moslem doctors points to ten months as the 
longest period of pregnancy recognized by any 
court of justice. In this they follow the old 
Eoman law. According to Sunni law, an invalid 
marriage does not affect the legitimacy of chil- 
dren born from it. In this connection it is inter- 
esting to note the rights of children according to 
Moslem law. These are mentioned in books of 
jurisprudence under the heading of Hidhana, or 
the care of infant children. 

In case of separation by divorce between 
parents, the child belongs to the mother, but the 
father is responsible for its maintenance. There 
is no compulsion on the mother, as she may not 
be able to take charge of the infant. After the 
mother the order of the right of maintenance is 
the mother's grandmother; then the father's 
grandmother; the sister; the mother's aunt, etc. 
Full blood is preferred to half, and maternal to 
paternal relations. The term of Hidhana lasts in 
the case of a male child till he is able to shift for 
himself, that is, eat, drink, etc. Then the child 
passes to the care of the father or other paternal 
relations. One authority says that with respect 
to a boy this care ceases at the end of seven years, 




FELLAH GIRL FROM AN EGYPTIAN VILLAGE, WITH NATIVE 
DRUM USED AT WEDDINGS AND FESTIVITIES 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 87 

but in the case of a girl it lasts until puberty. 
It is recorded from Mohammed that the care of a 
female child devolves upon the father as soon as 
she begins to feel the carnal appetite, as she 
then requires superintendence over her conduct. 
(Hamilton's "Hedaya," 1:388.) 

All these regulations regarding the legal status 
of a child are based upon the practice of Moham- 
med and his companions in the early days of 
Islam. In regard to marriage the same book of 
law tells us that an infant has the right to require 
her guardian to marry her to any person, being 
her equal, for whom she has a liking, and he must 
comply. In the chapter on the maintenance of 
wives, Moslem law lays down that if a man's wife 
be still a child he is not legally required to main- 
tain her, but can give back her dower and dismiss 
her again. (P. 394.) 

In connection with birth and earliest infancy 
there are many curious customs observed among 
Mohammedans, which, although they differ in 
different lands, are most of them based upon 
Moslem tradition, and many of them are univer- 
sally practised. In no part of the world does the 
newborn child meet less preparation for its recep- 
tion than among the Bedouin. A land bare of 
many blessings, general poverty, and the law of 
the survival of the fittest, has made the desert 
mother stern of heart. In the open desert under 



88 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the shade of an acacia tree or behind a camel, the 
Arab baby first sees the daylight. As soon as it 
is born the mother herself rubs and cleans the 
child with sand, places it in her handkerchief and 
carries it home. She suckles the child for a short 
period, and at the age of four months it already 
drinks profusely of camel's milk. A name is 
given to the infant immediately; generally from 
some trifling incident connected with its birth, or 
from some object which attracts the mother's 
fancy. Moslem names such as Hassan, Ali, or 
Fatimah, are extremely uncommon among the 
true Bedouins, although Mohammed is sometimes 
given. Beside his own peculiar name every 
Bedouin boy is called by the name of his father 
and tribe. And what is more remarkable, boys are 
often called after their sisters, e.g., Alchu Noorah, 
the brother of Noorah. Girls' names are taken 
from the constellations, birds, or desert animals 
like Gazelle. Mrs. Edwin E. Calverley, of 
Kuweit, Arabia, writes: "Bedouin parents de- 
light in calling their children by queer names. A 
favourite name for girls is ' Little Rag,' and 
' Little Dog' is a frequent one among boys. If a 
mother thinks her family sufficiently large, she 
does not hesitate to name the last child ' Enough' 
or even 'Too Much.' The town Arabs tease the 
Bedouins about their funny names, but these chil- 
dren of the desert only smile good-naturedly and 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 89 

reply, 'We are Bo Bedou,' of which the Amer- 
icanism would be, 'We are Hay-seeds, and you 
must not expect too much of us/ " 

In China, according to Marshall Broomhall, 
"a Koranic name, King-ming, has to be given to 
a child within seven days of its birth, upon which 
occasion a feast has to be made. [Still-born chil- 
dren are not to be named.] The rich are ex- 
pected to kill a sheep, two if the child is a male, 
and the poor are to be fed with the meat. In 
selecting the name the father has to hold the child 
with its face turned toward Mecca and repeat 
a prayer in each ear of the child. Then taking 
the Koran he turns over any seven pages, and 
from the seventh word of the seventh line of the 
seventh page gives the name. At seven years of 
age the child is taught to worship and is circum- 
cised. " 

In Egypt when the child is to be named, three 
candles are taken and called by the chosen names. 
They are then lighted simultaneously, and the one 
burning longest is the name given to the child. 
One the seventh day, if the child is a boy — girls 
are not worth the trouble — he will be placed in a 
sieve with several grains of wheat, barley, etc. 
The mixture is then shaken while the midwife 
says: "Everything is shaken that it may benefit, 
and I am shaking you that you may learn to be 
good when you are chastised." 



90 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Among the Moslems of India, who follow the 
traditions of their sect, "at the birth of a child, 
after he has been properly washed with water 
and bound in swaddling clothes, he is carried 
by the midwife to the assembly of male rela- 
tives and friends, who have met for the occasion, 
when the chief Maulaivi, or some person present, 
recites the Azan, or summons to prayer, in 
the infant's right ear, and the Iquamah, which 
is the Azan with the addition of the words 'We 
are standing up for prayers/ in the left 
ear; a custom which is founded on the example 
of the Prophet, who is related to have done 
so at the birth of his grandson Hasan. The 
Maulawi then chews a little date fruit and in- 
serts it into the infant's mouth, a custom also 
founded upon the example of Mohammed. 
["Mishkat," Book XVIII, chap, iv, 1.] This 
ceremony being over, alms are distributed, and 
fatihahs are recited for the health and prosperity 
of the child. According to the traditions, the 
amount of silver given in alms should be of the 
same weight as the hair on the infant's head — 
the child's hair being shaved for this purpose." 
(Hughes, "Dictionary of Islam," p. 50.) 

This ceremony of shaving the head of the in- 
fant child and offering a sacrifice is based on the 
practice of Mohammed himself and the custom 
was probably current in Arabia long before his 




GROUP OF CHILDREN OF THE BESHARI TRIBE, ANGLO- 
EGYPTIAN SUDAN 
A tribe still largely pagan, but Islam is making inroads everywhere. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 91 

day. It is called the Aqiqah. Two sheep are sac- 
rificed for a boy and one for a girl, and it is inter- 
esting to note that, on the testimony of Ayesha, 
no bone of this sacrifice is to be broken. I have 
often called the attention of Moslem parents who 
observe this ceremony to the redemption of the 
first-born as related in the Book of Exodus, and 
the fulfilment of this type in Jesus Christ on the 
Cross, of Whom no bone was broken. This dedi- 
cation ceremony, or something equivalent to it, 
is found in all Moslem lands. From its very 
birth the Moslem child is a Moslem. 

The naming of the child, according to orthodox 
tradition, takes place on the seventh day. The 
child is named either after some Moslem saint 
or prophet, especially Mohammed, Hassan, or 
Hussein; after one of the attributes of God, with 
the prefix Abd (slave or servant of) ; and more 
rarely because of circumstances suggested by the 
auspicious hour, the planet, or the sign of the 
zodiac. In India, Madagascar, and the East In- 
dies many other customs are observed which are 
not purely Moslem, but have been adopted from 
other religions. In India, for example, Miss 
Martin of Calcutta tells us that in the fifth month 
they "observe the ceremony of Khir KJiitai, or 
feeding the child with milk, rice, and sugar 
cooked together. The stuff is taken from the plate 
with an old rupee, and a little put into the child's 



92 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

mouth. After the ceremony the old rupee is worn 
as a charm by the child.' ' Another practice is 
called Namak Chassi. " After five months and 
two days the child gets a little solid food called 
Palao (rice, flesh of fowl, and clarified butter 
called ghee cooked together). The sisters or 
cousins of the child put a grain or two in its 
mouth, and a drop or two of water ; after this the 
child gets solid food every day." For the cruel 
customs /observed among Moslem women in 
Madagascar, the reader is referred to Gabriel 
Farrand's book on the subject, "Musulmans 
a Madagascar," Vol. II, pp. 20-22 (Paris, 
1891). 

The religious ceremony which follows that of 
Aqiqah in the life of a Moslem child is circum- 
cision. Although this practice is nowhere re- 
ferred to in the Koran, it is universal among all 
Moslems, and is based upon the teaching and 
practice of the Prophet. It is recommended to 
be performed upon a boy between the ages of 
seven and twelve, but it is lawful to circumcise 
a child seven days after his birth. The process 
is not always antiseptic, by any means, and evil 
results are frequently in evidence, not to speak 
of the suffering caused to the child. It is, how- 
ever, the grand event of a boy's childhood, and is 
his feast day, in every part of the Moslem world. 
The description of the rite as performed in 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 93 

Morocco corresponds closely to the practice in 
Egypt and other Moslem lands. 

" Previous to the performance of the rite, the 
parents of the lad, if not in indigent circum- 
stances, generally cause him to be paraded 
through several streets of the town, dressed in 
the richest and most gaudy articles of clothing 
obtainable, with a stiff handkerchief bound like 
a hat round his head; mounted on a handsomely 
caparisoned horse, often borrowed for the occa- 
sion. 

"The horse is led, and on each side of it walk 
men bearing silk handkerchiefs, with which they 
continually flap away the flies from the child's 
face. The procession is headed by native mu- 
sicians keeping up an incessant din of ear- 
splitting music. Behind walk the family and 
friends of the boy. Two boys are sometimes 
paraded together, and sometimes two are placed 
on one horse. The procession is frequently ac- 
companied by flags, the object of this display 
being to attract the eye and divert it from the 
child, so great is the fear of the 'evil eye.' The 
operation is performed with scissors, either at 
home or at some shrine of repute." ("The 
Moors,' ' p. 243.) 

In Cairo the family send out gilt-edged printed 
invitation cards to the ceremony. I have two in 
my possession, and curiously both of them give 



94 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the Christian date as well as the Moslem date for 
the feast, and certain verses of poetry expressing 
their wishes for this auspicious occasion, In the 
cities of the Moslem world the rite is performed 
in accordance with the religious law, at a tender 
age, but in the country and among the Bedouin 
tribes it is often postponed until the twelfth or 
thirteenth year. In India this ceremony is per- 
formed at the age of seven or nine, an odd number 
of years generally being chosen. The boy is 
dressed as a bridegroom and there is great re- 
joicing. A similar feast is given to girls at that 
age. The girl is dressed as a bride, friends are 
invited, and the ears and nose of the child are 
bored. The higher the rank, the fewer the holes 
in the ears. Doubtless this ceremony in India is 
connected with a practice which prevails in many 
parts of the Moslem world, especially Egypt, 
Abyssinia, and Arabia. "We refer to the abomi- 
nable custom of female circumcision or mutilation. 
It is inevitably a moral shock and crisis brought 
prematurely into the innocence of girlhood. 
Grave results have been observed in school chil- 
dren, both mentally and morally. Mohammed 
the prophet is reported to have said: "Circum- 
cision is compulsory for males and an honourable 
act for females.' ' For the origin and character 
of this practice see Moslem tradition, or Nie- 
buhr's "Travels in Arabia" (Vol. II, pp. 250- 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 95 

251) and Klein, "The Eeligion of Islam" (p. 
131). In Egypt it is considered a great disgrace 
for a Moslem girl not to be circumcised, and the 
custom is also said to be prevalent among the 
Coptic Christian population. 

It is impossible to speak of some of the prac- 
tices still existing in Moslem lands, which add 
darker shades to the picture of childhood. Dr. 
C. Snouck Hurgronje mentions some of the hor- 
rible details in the sale of female slaves, espe- 
cially young girls, and the mutilation of male 
slaves for the markets. Eunuchs are still plenti- 
ful in many Moslem lands, and, curiously enough, 
are specially imported to act as guards for the 
mosques. On this whole subject see especially 
the book by Dr. A. Zambaco Pasha, "Les 
Eunuques d'Aujourd'hui et Ceux de Jadis," 
Paris, 1911. He says that there are over two 
thousand eunuchs in Constantinople, many of 
them still little boys. In North Africa they are 
still manufactured for the Moslem market. 

Moslem childhood does not last long. The 
whole system of Islam as it concerns family life 
and the treatment of women and children, is vile 
and revolting; and where in certain parts of the 
world civilization has crowded out these semi- 
barbarous customs and elevated womanhood, it 
has been in defiance of the religious teaching of 
the Prophet himself. According to Moslem law. 



96 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the child has no period of adolescence. Boys and 
girls leap from infancy into manhood and woman- 
hood, and the limit of the age of childhood is 
fixed wholly by physical laws. There is no 
thought of the immaturity of the mind. At the 
first signs of puberty childhood legally ceases. El 
Ghazzali, than whom there is no higher authority 
in Islam even to-day, gives these stages in the 
life of childhood. "The Moslem boy shall have 
the Aqiqah performed on the seventh day. When 
he reaches six, he is old enough to be punished; 
when he reaches nine he is to sleep by himself, 
and when he becomes thirteen he is to be driven 
with blows to prayer, if he refuses. At sixteen 
years his father shall cause him to marry.' ' And 
then parental responsibility ceases. In another 
tradition Mohammed is reported to have said, 
"Your sons are the perfume of your life for seven 
years; then for seven years they are your serv- 
ants ; after that they will turn into your enemies 
or your friends forever.' ' Abu Hanifa asserts 
that both boys and girls are adults at the age of 
fifteen. The earliest period of puberty with re- 
spect to a boy is said to be twelve, and with respect 
to a girl nine years. According to Moslem law 
the child himself must make the declaration and 
be credited. After this they become subject to 
all the laws affecting adults, and must observe 
all the ordinances of the Moslem faith ("El 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 97 

Hadayah," Hamilton's translation, Vol. Ill, p. 
483). 

We cannot be surprised that the period of 
adolescence, of happy childhood, of a life without 
the responsibility of marriage and parenthood, is 
made so brief in Moslem lands when we consider 
on what Moslem practices are based. Child mar- 
riage is a great evil, but it is based upon the high- 
est authority in the Moslem world, namely, the 
practice of the Prophet himself. We read : ' * The 
Prophet (on whom be prayers and peace) married 
Ayesha when she was six years old, and cohabited 
with her when she was nine; and she then re- 
mained his wife for nine years." (Sahih ul 
Bokhari, VII: 21.) What chance is there for the 
physical development of girlhood or boyhood thus 
cruelly handicapped ! As a child the Moslem girl 
has before her only a few short years in which 
she is able to learn at home or in school, and the 
effort to improve these short years is often fruit- 
less, because just as she shows any signs of bud- 
ding womanhood she must lay aside her books and 
"be hidden," as they say in Arabic. Her educa- 
tion stops just at the point when her mind is be- 
ginning to develop. She is thrust back into 
seclusion when she has made her first venture 
into the world of life and thought about her, and 
the seclusion of Moslem girls, we must bear in 
mind, has its effect physically as well as mentally 



98 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

and morally. Child marriage is a defiance of the 
laws of Nature, and its evils are multiform and 
deplorable. As Dr. Dennis states: "It is physi- 
cally injurious, morally deleterious, mentally 
weakening; destructive of family dignity; pro- 
ductive of enfeebled offspring ; provokes the curse 
of poverty, and tends to rapid over-population. ' ' 
("Christian Missions and Social Progress," Vol. 
I, p. 119.) Of late voices have been raised in pro- 
test against the custom of early marriage by 
Moslems themselves, especially in India and Tur- 
key. We learn that the Department of Public 
Health of the Ottoman Empire has just decided 
that hereafter the marriageable age for residents 
in European and Asiatic Turkey shall be eighteen 
years for boys and fourteen years for girls; 
while in the warmer regions of Arabia and Syria, 
the limit is two years younger in each case. As 
the Sheri'ah, or sacred law, fixes the limit for girls 
at nine years, this new rule is a great advance in 
the right direction. But in all Moslem lands early 
marriage is still the rule and its postponement to 
maturity the exception. 1 

1 Dr. T. L. Pennell states that " the fine physique and good 
health of the hill Afghans and nomadic tribes is largely due to 
the fact that their girls do not marry till full grown, not usually 
till over twenty, and till then they lead healthy, vigorous, out- 
door lives." It is the nomad life not yet dominated by Moslem 
custom which permits the physical development of girlhood im- 
possible to Moslem girls of the towns. 






PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 99 

Not many months ago a would-be reformer in 
Alexandria stirred the whole of intelligent Egypt 
by requesting the government to raise the mar- 
riageable age of girls from twelve to sixteen. A 
Bill was actually drafted to this effect, when the 
inevitable fetwa of the Ulama made it clear that 
this was going against the law of Islam, and that 
those who supported it would be enemies to Islam. 
The reform was dropped like a hot cinder. In 
Persia girls are often married when they are mere 
children. Dr. Wishard writes : 

" Every doctor in Persia who has had much 
experience could tell most dreadful and harrow- 
ing stories of the suffering these early marriages 
have caused. I have seen children brought to 
the hospital the very mention of whose husband's 
names would cause outbursts of shrieks, lest they 
might be compelled to return to them. It is need- 
less for me to state here that this early mar- 
riage on the part of girls means a weakened 
race. Many of these children are married, often 
at the age of twelve, to men old enough to be 
their grandfathers, and this means a large num- 
ber of widows.' ' 

The Javanese also marry early, when the 
daughter is, say, twelve or fourteen and the boy 
about sixteen years old. Among the Afghans 
a girl, as soon as she reaches nubile age, is, for 
all practical purposes, put up for auction sale to 
the highest bidder. Her father discourses on her 



100 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

merits as a beauty or as a housekeeper in the 
public meeting-places, and invites offers from 
those who are in want of a wife. Even the more 
wealthy and more respectable Afghans are not 
above this system of thus lauding the human 
wares which they have for sale. "The betrothal 
of girls who are not yet born is frequent, and a 
promise of a girl thus made is considered par- 
ticularly binding. It is also usual for an award 
of compensation for blood to be paid in the shape 
of girls, some of whom are living whilst others 
are not yet born." (A. D. Dixey, "Baluchistan," 
Church Missionary Review, December, 1908). 

A medical missionary in India tells of a girl 
who came "suffering from granular eyelids, a 
terrible trouble, which is common here. She is a 
girl in years, but a divorced woman, divorced be- 
fore her baby boy was born. Now he is the light of 
her eyes ; yet the father will be able to claim him 
when he is three years old. This is Mohammedan 
law, I am told." And the tragedy of this home 
life, so prevalent in all Moslem lands, is not re- 
vealed only to the medical missionary. Educated 
Moslems themselves are beginning to see it. S. 
Khuda Bukhsh, an educated Moslem from India, 
writes in his Essays: "Children brought up in 
this poisonous atmosphere can hardly be expected 
to be a credit to their society or a glory to 
their country. We cannot gather grapes from 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 101 

thorns nor figs from thistles. Let us, then, first 
and foremost, purify and sanctify our home and 
hearth.' ' Kasim Amin Bey in his book on "The 
New Woman/' and Mansur Fahmy in his recent 
volume on "La Femme," have clearly shown the 
results of the degradation of Moslem womanhood 
upon the children of the Moslem world. 

The protests of Moslem reformers are gener- 
ally concerned, however, not with the rights of 
children, but with the rights of women. The 
awakened conscience among educated Moslems in 
this respect is due largely to Western education 
and to the higher ideals of home life taught and 
exhibited by Christian missions. We must not 
forget, however, that this reform movement even 
where it has gained the largest following, as, for 
example, in India, only touches a small percent- 
age of the Moslem population. It has been esti- 
mated that the total number of Mohammedans 
with Western education does not exceed one mil- 
lion, which would be less than one-half per cent. 
Of their efforts at reform we shall learn later in 
this book. 

A true idea of Moslem childhood as it concerns 
the masses to-day can, therefore, only be gained 
when we remember that everywhere ignorance 
and superstition brood over the home life in lands 
like Afghanistan, Turkestan, Persia, and the vil- 
lages of India and Egypt ; and the result is sadly 



10£ CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

evident in the physical life of the child. The 
lack of all medical knowledge in the home and 
the medical treatment given when a native hakim 
or doctor is called in, are both the canse of need- 
less and unintentional cruelty to children. In 
this matter again there is a wonderful similarity 
of cause and effect in all Moslem lands. The 
Tub en-Nebawi or the Table Talk of Mohammed 
on medical subjects, has been carefully collected 
and is circulated everywhere, either in books of 
tradition or in manuals for the home. Whatever 
he taught is considered the quintessence of wis- 
dom and the final word in medicine. Mohammed 
himself was superstitious and the Koran contains 
revelations about witchcraft and sorcery. 1 It is 
hardly an exaggeration to say that the belief in 
magic has a greater hold upon the masses than 
the faith of Islam itself. This is especially true 
on the border-marches of Islam in Malaysia and 
Africa. Millions of Moslems are the slaves of 
ignorance and superstition, and Moslem children 
everywhere are bedecked with talismans and 
amulets to ward off evil. The following are used 
as amulets in Arabia: a small Koran suspended 
from the shoulder; a chapter written on paper 
and folded in a leather case ; some of the names of 
God or their numerical values ; the names of the 

1 Especially Surahs 113 and 114; see the commentaries and 
Moslem books on magic. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 103 

Prophet and his companions; green stones with- 
out inscriptions ; beads, old coins, animal teeth, or 
holy earth from Mecca or Kerbela in small bags. 
Amulets are not only worn by the Arabs thenv 
selves and by children to protect them from the 
evil eye, but they are put on camels, donkeys, 
horses, fishing-boats, and sometimes over the 
doors of their dwellings. In Hejaz if a child is 
very ill the mother takes seven flat loaves of bread 
and puts them under its pillow; in the morning 
the loaves are given to the dogs, — and the child 
is not always cured. Rings are worn against the 
influence of evil spirits; incense or evil-smelling 
compounds are burned in the sick-room to drive 
away the devil; mystic symbols are written on 
the walls for a similar purpose. Love-philtres 
are everywhere used and in demand; and name- 
less absurdities are committed to insure success- 
ful childbirth. The child witch, called Um-el- 
subyan, is feared by all mothers; narcotics are 
freely used to quiet unruly infants, and naturally 
mortality is very large. In Persia opium is used 
to an alarming extent in the nursery, with all its 
evil consequences upon the child. 

In Turkey, we are told by Miss Isabel M. Blake 
of Aintab {Life and Light, November, 1914) : 
"In some localities babies when born are smeared 
with oil and laid in the sun; in others they are 
rubbed with salt until the tender flesh is nearly 



104 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

raw. The poor, ignorant village woman hangs 
amulets or blue beads upon her baby, as the 
peasant does upon horse, donkey, or camel, 'to 
keep off the evil eye. ' Then, though he is scarcely 
a year old, she feeds him with unripe grapes and 
wonders why he sickens and dies. The flies 
gather on the sticky face and cling around the 
eyes of the baby lying, with arms and legs tightly 
bound, in its cradle and the mother wonders why 
his eyes are sore." Dr. Hamilton of the same 
station was once called to see an infant. Entering 
the courtyard she found that the mother had 
heated a hairpin red hot and was applying it to 
the poor child's joints. On the doctor's indignant 
protest, she looked up wonderingly and said, 
"Why, we all do that in our village ! It's to make 
the baby strong. ' ' 

In Arabia this practice of cautery (kei) is uni- 
versal as a favourite cure for all sorts of dis- 
eases. This is based upon a saying of Moham- 
med that the "last medicine (namely, the most 
powerful) is cautery." Little children often have 
brand marks all over their bodies (which become 
festering sores), placed there with the intention 
of curing them of fevers, rheumatism, and other 
ills of childhood. Another favourite remedy in 
Arabia and Persia is khelal, or perforating the 
skin surface with a red-hot iron and then passing 
a thread through the hole to facilitate suppura- 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 105 

tion. Scarcely one Arab in a hundred who has 
not some kei marks on his body. Where Jcei fails 
they have recourse to words written on paper 
either from the Koran or, by law of contraries, 
words of evil sinister import. These the patient 
"takes" either by swallowing them, paper and 
all, or by drinking the ink-water in which the 
writing is washed off. Their pharmacopceia is not 
large, but quite remarkable. In addition to such 
simple herbs of the desert as the women collect 
and dry, they use in grave emergencies that which 
is haram (forbidden) and unclean. Patients have 
come to me for a small piece of swine's flesh 
(which they suppose all Christians eat) to cure 
one in desperate straits. Doughty tells how 
among the Bedouins they give the sick to eat of 
the carrion-eagle, and even seethe the asses' dung 
for a potion. The science of medicine in the 
towns is not much in advance of that of the desert 
— -more book-talk but even less natural intelli- 
gence. A disease to be at all respectable must be 
connected with one of the four temperaments or 
"humours of Hippocrates.' ' Medicines are hot 
and cold, wet and dry; and the same fourfold 
classification distinguishes all ailments. 

Most of the diseases of childhood, however, are 
supposed to be caused by demons or the evil eye. 
Mothers live in perpetual terror on account of 
this superstition. From Algiers we learn that 



106 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

when a child is born the people believe a little 
demon is brought into the world at the same time, 
whose birth takes place in the cupboard or the 
wall. If the child is prettier than the demon, the 
latter gets jealous and causes convulsions. The 
woman then goes round the court, and standing 
still in one corner, converses with the demon, be- 
seeching it to leave her little one in peace. The 
demon specially feared for the children is called 
Taba. In order to pacify it all sorts of things 
are done, of which the following are instances: 
A black hen is kept in the room. Immediately 
the baby is born it is driven far away from the 
house, and woe to him who picks it up, for the 
demon enters him instead of the child ; or a dog is 
kept in the room, who shares all the mother has 
to eat. The demon then enters her puppies; or 
the child is sold; the purchaser comes to see it; 
it is told its mother has come, and they all act as 
if this were true. 

Whooping-cough is caused by certain demons 
which tickle the lungs. Our Algerian correspond- 
ent goes on to say: " There are all sorts of 
remedies for this, such as giving the child 
snails and honey, or taking it to the gas works. 
This last would seem quite medical, but it is 
not so in reality, for they believe the fumes 
will drive the demon away. Then in cases 
where the cough is at its worst, they stretch 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 107 

the child out flat and prepare an instrument 
with which to cut its throat. Having pre- 
tended to do this they hold it up three times as 
an offering to the demon, thinking that he will 
then be satisfied and leave the child alone.' ' 
Some of the practices are ridiculous rather than 
cruel. When a child is backward in learning to 
walk, eggs are smashed on its little feet, or figs 
and sugar are placed on its knees. When the baby 
snores in Algeria a cat is placed in a sack, and 
the sleeping infant is hit with it until the snores 
enter the cat instead! 

Mohammedan mothers believe that jealousy is 
a disease and should be so treated. All kinds of 
curious practices are in vogue to drive out this 
demon of jealousy, which the foreseen arrival of 
a little brother or sister produces in the child 
In Algiers this malady is treated as follows : An 
egg is boiled in quicklime, the shell taken off, and 
it is given to the child to eat ; or the child is put 
on the doorstep, two eggs are placed in its lap, 
which other children take away, thus causing the 
jealousy to enter them; or the child is given 
"l'eau des tombes" to drink (i.e., the water which 
is poured on the graves of the Marabouts), whilst 
the mother says some words to the effect that 
the heart of the little one may become as cold as 
the dead body of the Marabout. The jealousy of 
one woman for another's baby is thought to cast 



108 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

a spell which necessitates the following ceremony : 
A fire is lighted upon the ordinary family pedes- 
tal, salt sprinkled upon the flames, and the in- 
fant swung round seven times in the fumes, to the 
accompaniment of appropriate incantations. The 
ceremony is varied in the case of adults, the 
pedestal being swung round the individual. 

In Egypt the evil eye is a special danger to 
children, who must be protected by many strange 
practices. Before a child is seven days old the 
midwife will place near its head a loaf of bread, 
a lump of salt, and a sharp knife. The explana- 
tion is that devils fear the knife, and recognizing 
salt and bread as blessings of God, will conclude 
that the child is also a blessing and therefore go 
away. 

Of the effect of Moslem education and moral 
training — or the utter lack of moral training — 
even upon the physique of the child, we will speak 
later. The reader has already had a glimpse of 
the environment in which the child grows up. One 
thing, however, remains to be noticed, namely, 
the evil of child labour. The Moslem world as a 
whole is not one of factories and workshops, 
where the conditions of Western civilization have 
brought in the curse of child labour with its de- 
plorable consequences, but there is no anti-child- 
labour law or sentiment in any part of the Mos- 
lem world. The children of the poor are made to 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 109 

work from their earliest years, and many Moslem 
families are supported by the wages of children. 1 

The statistics of illiteracy show how few chil- 
dren there are who have opportunity for educa- 
tion. Nor have they time for play. One of the 
missionaries in India made a plea that to the chil- 
dren of that country might be brought the gift of 
childhood. "They are all little old men and 
women," she said; and Mrs. Napier Malcolm, in 
speaking of Persian children, makes the same ob- 
servation. One of our illustrations shows how in 
Java mere babies are employed in weaving hats 
for the trade. The room where they work seems 
clean and airy, but what of the child's mind and 
soul in daily contact with elders and strangers 
whose conversation is Moslem? 

When childhood has to assume such responsi- 
bility, not only of hard labour, but often of help- 
ing support the family, and when children are 
associated with their elders at the same task, it 
is good for neither their bodies nor their souls. 
Mrs. Worrall, M.D., thus describes a visit to the 
date-packers at Busrah : 

"Under all the porticos were men and women, 

1 In the year 1900, eighteen per cent of the children under 
sixteen years of age in the United States were working for 
wages. The new census of 1910 shows a small decrease in the 
percentage of child labour. In Europe, of course, the situation 
is worse, but in all Christian lands there are laws against child 
labour, and school privileges are open to most, if not all children. 
It is not so in the Dar-ul-Islam. 



110 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

boys and girls, seated on clean mats, selecting 
the best dates from boxes into which they had 
been loosely thrown. These they laid one by 
one in regular rows. One quick-fingered girl was 
able to pack seven boxes a day, although she was 
not at all well. Another, an old woman, could 
finish one and a half. Each was to receive two 
cents a box for the packing, so none could grow 
rich at the work, although what they received 
no doubt meant a great deal to them. While we 
were watching the packing, the hammals (men 
who carry the dates from the boats to the pack- 
ers) brought a special kind of date. On perceiv- 
ing this, a large number of packers ran to fill 
their boxes with this sort, which is easier to pack, 
but the heavy stick applied on the back of a few 
dispersed them quickly to their work." 

In regard to child labour in Syria, Miss Manas- 
seh writes : ' l Girls as young as nine or ten often 
go to the silk-spinning factories, where they work 
sometimes thirteen to fourteen hours out of the 
twenty-four, for sixpence or eightpence a day. 
They frequently become ill from the bad air of the 
factory, the smell of the cocoons mingled with the 
steam being peculiarly nauseous. One can always 
tell when a girl has been in the factory for any 
length of time by her pale cheeks and listless 
expression." 

We close this chapter with a vivid picture of the 





THE PRICE OF A TURKISH RUG 
Moslem girls in Turkey at the loom. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 111 

horrors of child labour in the factories of Kirman, 
Persia. The picture in the text shows how costly 
rugs can be made which are not the price of blood, 
but a symbol of the ministry and human helpful- 
ness. In our illustration we see Moslem orphan 
girls, after the Balkan wars, weaving carpet 
under the care of the missionaries in Turkey. 
They look well-fed, healthy, and happy. Such 
child labour is not a curse, but Mrs. Malcolm tells 
a different story. 

"The factories of Kirman are filled with chil- 
dren from four years old upward, underfed, over- 
worked, living a loveless, joyless, hopeless life. 
The factories are built without windows lest the 
children's attention should be distracted, and the 
bad air, want of food, and the constantly keeping 
in one position produce rickets and deformity in 
nearly all. Of thirty-eight children examined in 
one factory, thirty-six were deformed. 

"One of the governors of Kirman forbade the 
employment of children under twelve in the fac- 
tories, but the order did not last beyond his gov- 
ernorship. The same governor gave the order, 
still in force, which forbids the employment of 
children before dawn or after sunset, thus re- 
ducing their working hours to an average of 
twelve hours a day. A recent governor added to 
this an order limiting the Friday work to about 
two and a half hours, 'from sunrise to full sun- 



112 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

shine,' so now the children share in part the gen- 
eral Friday holiday of Mohammedanism. 

"The factory owners are glad to get the chil- 
dren, for they say children work better than 
grown-np people at carpet-making, and of course 
they expect less wages. But how can the parents 
allow their children to live this cruel life? You 
will find the answer in the Persian saying that 
'of every three persons in Kirman, four smoke 
opium.' . . . Over and over again comes the ter- 
rible story, the father and mother smoke opium; 
the little deformed child toils through the long 
days to earn the money that buys it. ' ' 



IV 
THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 



" Do you remember the time when you were twelve? To many 
that is the most important moment of life; a time of angelic 
purity. The mind is no longer dormant; it is able to see and 
understand; it sees that God is good, and that to serve Him 
is to reign with Him. Yes, at that age, men believe in heaven; 
they are alive to the beauty of heavenly things; they still know 
how to kneel down." — Henri Perreyve — " Discours sur l'Histoire 
de France." 

"But there is another side to education in the East, for us 
a picturesque side, although picturesque with ignorance and cor- 
ruption. The kuttabs may be said to be the basis of the educa- 
tional system, yet the teachers in them are a byword every- 
where for sloth, immorality, greed, and ignorance. The scholar 
Islam has always respected; but upon the schoolmaster it has 
always looked down, as feeble of wits and low of conduct." — 
D. B. Macdonald — "Aspects of Islam." 



IV 

THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 

THE Moslem idea of the innocence of child- 
hood is expressed by them when they say 
that the mind of children is like a clean 
tablet, equally open to any sort of inscription. It 
is not generally known that Moslems deny orig- 
inal sin in any sense of the word. Sin, accord- 
ing to most Moslem authorities, is not an inher- 
itance, but a conscious act committed against 
known law by one who has attained years of dis- 
cretion. Therefore sins of ignorance are not con- 
sidered matters of guilt. In al-Ghazali's great 
work, "The Revival of the Sciences of Religion" 
(Vol. Ill, p. 53), there is a special section on 
the method for the education of boys and the im- 
provement of their moral character. Nothing is 
said in regard to girls. It is generally considered 
inadvisable by all old Moslem authors to teach 
girls how to read and write, and the omission in 
al-Ghazali is therefore significant. He begins 
his chapter as follows : 

"It is most important to know how to bring up 
a boy, for the boy is a trust in the hands of his 

115 



116 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

father, and his pure heart is a precious jewel 
like a tablet without inscription. It is therefore 
ready to receive whatever is engraved upon it, 
and turns to whatever direction it is inclined. If 
he learns to do good and is taught it, he grows up 
accordingly, and is happy in this world and the 
next; and his parents and teachers will have the 
reward for their action. But if he learns evil and 
grows up in neglect like the dumb cattle, he will 
turn away from the truth and perish, and his 
sin will be on the neck of his guardian. Allah 
has said, O ye who believe, guard yourselves and 
your family from the fire ; and even as the father 
would guard his son from the fire of this world, 
by how much the more should he guard him from 
the fire of the world to come ? He will guard him 
from it by chastising him and educating him and 
teaching him the best virtues. To this end he 
will only give his boy to be nursed by a good, 
pious woman who eats the proper food, for the 
milk from forbidden food has no blessing in it." 

He then goes on to show that the education of 
a child consists in teaching him table manners, the 
avoidance of unclean food, gluttony, and impolite- 
ness. He advises parents to dress their children 
simply and not in costly clothing. To quote once 
more: 

"After teaching him these things it is wise to 
send him to a school where he shall learn the 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 117 

Koran and the pious traditions, and the tales of 
the righteous and their lives, in order that a love 
of the pious may be imprinted in his heart; and 
he should be kept from reading erotic poetry and 
prevented from mixing with those people of edu- 
cation who think that this sort of reading is 
profitable and elevating, because, on the contrary, 
it produces in the hearts of children the seeds of 
corruption. Whenever the boy shows a good 
character or an act which is praiseworthy, he 
must be honoured for it and rewarded, so that 
he will be happy; and this should especially be 
done in the presence of others. If, on the con- 
trary, he should act otherwise once and again, it 
is necessary to take no notice of it, nor to lay 
bare his fault, as though you imagine no one 
would dare to do such a thing, especially if the 
boy himself conceals it, and has determined to 
hide it; for exposing would only make him more 
bold in the future. If he should repeat the fault, 
he can be punished in secret. ' ' 

Such is the strange ethical teaching — a min- 
gling of good and bad advice — on the part of one 
who has always been considered as the pillar of 
orthodoxy and the great authority on Moslem 
morals. Al-Ghazali contains many things that 
are worthy of note. Among others, he speaks of 
the tablet of the child's mind in this fashion: 
"Good teaching is like the carving on the rock, 



118 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

not easily effaced;" and again, "Mohammed the 
prophet said, Every one that is born is born with 
a natural capacity for the true religion. His 
parents turn him into a Jew, or a Christian, or a 
Zoroastrian. " 

All these counsels of perfection, however, have 
not been widely accepted. Mohammedan chil- 
dren the world over are neglected utterly, both as 
regards moral and intellectual training. Most of 
them have had no opportunity whatever. The il- 
literacy of Moslem lands, — even those lands which 
have had the religion of the Prophet as their own 
for thirteen centuries — is as surprising as it is 
appalling. One would think that a religion which 
makes so much of its sacred Book, and which at 
one time was the mistress of science and litera- 
ture, would, in its onward sweep, have enlight- 
ened the nations and raised the standard of 
literacy. Facts, however, are stubborn things. 
Careful investigations show that from eighty-five 
to ninety per cent of all the Moslems in Africa 
are unable to read or write, and the conditions in 
Asia are not much better. In India 8,700,000 
Moslems are of school-going age, but only 1,550,- 
000 are found in schools; and some of these 
schools are classified in the returns on education 
as "bad or indifferent." The total number of 
illiterates among the Mohammedans of India, in- 
cluding Burma (according to the Census of 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 119 

1900), was 59,674,499, or over ninety-six per cent 
of the total Mohammedan population. The Mos- 
lems of India are considered a backward class. 
From South India we hear therefore that by gov- 
ernment order all Moslem children are admitted 
into government and private schools at one-half 
the regular fees for others. In Kashmir they 
have made so little progress in education that all 
the higher posts are filled with Hindus. The 
figures of the last census (1911) show the con- 
trast : 

"Of every 1,000 adults, 61 Hindus and 8 Mo- 
hammedans are literate. Of every 100 boys of 
school-going age, 14 Hindus and 2 Mohammedans 
attend school. As yet no Kashmiri-born Moham- 
medan has secured the B.A. degree.' ' 

A missionary from Kashmir reports that only 
five per cent of the population can read, and that 
during eighteen years' residence in the country, 
he met only five or six women who could read an 
ordinary book. 

The illiteracy of childhood is undoubtedly due 
in a large measure to the utter illiteracy of Mo- 
hammedan womanhood. In Egypt, according to 
the last census, only three women out of a thou- 
sand can read, and as these statistics include the 
Coptic population, the illiteracy of Moslem 
womanhood is still greater than this appalling 
statement would indicate. The Census Return 



120 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

goes on to say: "The Copts have a very much 
higher proportion of literates than the Moslems ; 
male literates per thousand being 2.5 more 
numerous, and female literates per thousand 
eight times more numerous.' ' According to 
the same census, the total number of Moslem 
children between ten and fourteen years of 
age was 1,098,372, and of this number only 
64,191 boys and 3,005 girls were able to read. 
If such are the facts in regard to India 
and Egypt, both of which countries have had ex- 
ceptional contact for a considerable period with 
the West, and have always been considered among 
the foremost Moslem countries of Asia and 
Africa, what shall we say of less favoured lands 
such as Morocco, Tripoli, and Afghanistan? Il- 
literacy here among women and girls is almost 
universal, and the school system — such as it is — 
most primitive. 

With illiteracy and ignorance goes their twin 
sister superstition. The Moslem child every- 
where and in all circumstances is born into a 
world of superstition. This is true of the child 
of the Amir of Afghanistan as well as of the slave 
child in the Sudan ; of those in China as well as of 
those in Morocco. A world of spiritual beings, 
angels, jinn, demons, and devils, is all about him, 
to be feared and propitiated, or to be welcomed 
and honoured. The Mohammedan doctrine of 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 121 

angels and devils is not a theoretical one, as it 
has so largely become in our Western world, but 
is intensely practical, dominant, and potent. 
Every grotesque and gruesome detail of Koranic 
teaching has its powerful effect on the mind of 
the little child. The veil that hides this spirit 
world is almost transparent even in the daytime. 
The unexpected may always happen, and spirit 
with spirit may meet on the least provocation. 
But when night falls or fear overcomes or pun- 
ishment threatens, then the veil is wholly rent 
asunder, and the poor little child stands in dread 
of nameless shapes and forms and terrors. 

Islam teaches that angels are very numerous, 
and in addition to Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil, 
who will sound the last trumpet, Israil is the 
angel of death who carries away the souls of little 
children as well as of older people. There are 
two recording angels for each child, who sit on his 
right and left shoulder and record all the good 
and ill. Mohammed therefore enjoined his peo- 
ple not to spit in front or on the right, but over 
the left shoulder, as on that side stands the re- 
cording angel of evil. Munkar and Nakir are 
two black angels, terrible of aspect, with blue 
eyes, who question those buried in the grave and 
beat with harsh blows those whose replies are not 
satisfactory. There are a host of guardian angels 
whose names are written on amulets; eight spe- 



122 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

cial angels carry the throne of Allah, and nine- 
teen have charge of the fires of hell. The forty- 
sixth and seventy-second chapters of the Koran 
tell something about the jinn, spirits created of 
fire and of diverse shapes, which marry and carry 
on good or ill until they too are taken away by 
death. 

The stories of these jinn in the " Arabian 
Nights" deceive no child of the Western world, 
but Moslems believe in them, and know from the 
Koran itself not only that they exist but that the 
prophet Solomon sealed some of them up in brass 
bottles. They listened to Mohammed's preaching 
and were converted to Islam. They frequent wells, 
ruined houses, baths, and love the dark. Their 
chief abode is in the mountains of Kaf which sur- 
round the world. One of the first prayers a Mos- 
lem child is taught is a prayer for delivery from 
the power of these evil spirits. 

These jinn are of three kinds, according to Mo- 
hammed: those which fly in the air, those which 
resemble snakes, and others are like men. Mo- 
hammed, we are told in Moslem books of theology, 
once said, "A wicked genius came suddenly upon 
me last night desiring to disturb me in prayer, 
so I strangled him and wished to tie him to one 
of the columns of the mosque !" Another tradi- 
tion relates: 

"We went out on the pilgrimage, and when we 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 123 

reached al-'Arj, we saw a snake quivering, which 
not long afterwards died. One of the men among 
us took out for it a piece of cloth in which he 
wrapped it up, and then digging a hole buried 
it in the ground. We then proceeded to Mecca 
and went to the sacred mosque, where a man 
came to us and said, 'Which of you is the person 
that was kind to 'Amr bin Jabir?' Upon which 
we replied, 'We do not know him/ He then 
asked, 'Which of you is the person that was kind 
to the jannf and they replied, 'This one here/ 
upon which he said to him, 'May God repay you 
good on our account! As to him (the serpent 
that was buried), he was the last of the nine genii 
who had heard the Koran from the lips of the 
Prophet/ " (Hayat ul-Hayawan.) 

Equally grotesque and terrifying to the mind 
of a child is the Moslem doctrine of devils. Satan, 
called Iblis, was expelled from Paradise because 
he refused to prostrate before Adam when God 
commanded it. (Surah 7:10-17.) He became so 
angry that a splinter of fire flew off from him, out 
of which God created his wife. His demonic 
progeny is as numerous as it is terrible. "Among 
them are Lakis; Walhan, who is the presiding 
devil over ablution and prayer; al-Haffaf, who 
is the presiding devil over deserts and the 
causer of bitterness (or sorrow), on which ac- 
count he has obtained his sobriquet Abu-murrah; 



124 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Zalambur, who presides over markets and causes 
to look beautiful (in the eyes of men) the talking 
of nonsense, a false oath, and the praise of mer- 
chandise; and Bathr, who presides over misfor- 
tunes and causes to appear beautiful (in the eyes 
of men) the scratching of faces, the slapping of 
cheeks, and the picking of pockets.' ' 

Against this world of iniquity, these spirits that 
walk and work in darkness, the Moslem mother 
tries to protect her infant, as well as herself, by 
the use of charms, talismans, and amulets. From 
every part of the Moslem world the testimony 
comes of the universality of this practice, its 
degrading character, and of crafty priests and 
leaders who jatten upon the superstitious fear of 
the people. 

All sorts of things are used as amulets, and 
their use is justified by the saying of Mohammed 
himself (Mishkat 21:1) : " There is no wrong in 
using charms and spells so long as you do not 
associate anything with God." The most common 
things used as amulets are a small Koran sus- 
pended in a silver case; words from the Koran 
written on paper and carried in a leather recepta- 
cle ; the names of Allah or their numerical value ; 
the names of Mohammed and his companions; 
precious stones with or without inscriptions; 
beads; old coins; clay images; the teeth of wild 
animals ; holy earth from Mecca or Kerbela in the 




A CHILD WITH ITS FATHER 

A type of the Egyptian Fellaheen. The total population of 

Egypt is 11,287,359; of these 95 per cent, are Moslem. 

Notice the number of amulets on the little fellow's neck. 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 125 

shape of tiny bricks, or in small bags. When the 
Kaaba covering at Mecca is taken down each year 
and renewed, the old cloth is cut up into small 
pieces and sold for charms. 

In Sierra Leone, West Africa, we are told that 
the first step used by Moslem missionaries in 
gaining an influence over the people is by making 
and selling cabalistic charms, fetish-like amulets, 
and magical remedies, which generally consist of 
Arabic formulas taken from the Koran. Some 
are written upon pieces of paper, to be fastened 
to the walls of houses, or sewn in small leather 
encasements to be worn on different parts of the 
body. Among the Mohammedan Hausas familiar 
spirits are supposed to be associated with the life 
of each individual. These evil spirits are called 
bori. In his book, "The Ban of the Bori," Major 
Tremearne shows how completely the lives of the 
Hausas, from birth to death, are under the dom- 
inance of their beliefs in these spirits. The dif- 
ferent classes of demons are described in detail 
in this most interesting book, in which the author 
also passes under review the family relationships 
and every-day pursuits of the Hausa communities 
with which he is dealing, and shows the practical 
influence of these magical beliefs. Similar con- 
ditions prevail in other parts of Africa also. 

Mr. P. Marty, writing in the Revue du Monde 
Musidman concerning the amulets used in Sene- 



126 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

gal (June, 1914), shows how the Islamization of 
animistic amulets is one of the main processes 
by which the Moslem religion penetrates and 
spreads among tribes in that part of Africa. The 
volumes of this important magazine contain a 
whole series of articles on the use of amulets and 
Moslem superstitions connected with the same, 
among the Moros of the Philippine Islands, the 
Persians, the Javanese, the Battaks of Sumatra, 
and Moslems everywhere. Especially noteworthy 
is the article by Antoine Cabaton in Vol. VIII, pp. 
370-397, which opens up a whole world of supersti- 
tion. ' i In Kashmir, ' ' we are told by Mr. Walter, 
"both men and women are covered with charms of 
every description and for every conceivable end, 
sold to them by the industrious mullahs, whose 
chief business it is to deal in them. I used to 
watch one of them going on his weekly rounds 
among the boatmen of my own and neighbouring 
boats, always finding the trade good, and appear- 
ing to be quite the most prosperous personage on 
the horizon.' ' 

Many of the portraits of Moslem children from 
all lands here given, illustrate this custom. The 
girl from Kordofan, for example, has little cloth- 
ing except her talisman, the Tartar child wears 
hers, and so do the children from Morocco and 
Persia, while the little Egyptian boy has enough 
amulets to make a high priest's breastplate. 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 127 

According to the principles of Islam only 
verses from the Koran should be used, but 
the door of superstition once being set ajar 
by Mohammed himself, as we know from the 
story of his life, it is now wide open. The 
chapters from the Koran which are most 
often selected for use as amulets and put in 
small cases are Surahs 1, 6, 18, 36, 44, 55, 67, 
and 78. There are five verses in the Koran 
called the verses of protection, Ayat-el-Hifdh, 
which are most powerful to defend from evil. 
They read as follows: "The preservation of 
heaven and earth is no burden unto Him ' ' ; " God 
is the best protector ' ' ; " They guard him by the 
command of God"; "We guard him from every 
stoned devil"; "A protection from every rebel- 
lious devil." 

These verses are written with great care and 
with a special kind of ink by those who deal with 
amulets, and are sold for a good price, The ink 
used for writing amulets is saffron water, rose 
water, orange water, the juice of onions, water 
from the sacred well of Zemzem, and some- 
times even human blood! It is very important 
that the one who writes the amulet be a holy 
man in the Moslem sense of that word. We 
are told in Arabic books on the subject (and 
these books are printed by the thousands), e.g.: 
"The diet of the one who prepares charms de- 



128 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

pends on the kind of names of God which he 
intends to write or recite. If they are the terrible 
attributes of Allah, then he must refrain from 
the use of meat, fish, eggs, honey, and musk. If 
they are His amiable attributes, he must abstain 
from butter, curds, vinegar, salt, and amber- 
gris/ ' 

One of the most common talismans in use 
throughout the world of Islam is the one called 
Buduh. It consists of a magic square, in which 
the numbers add up to fifteen in every direction, 
expressed by the letters of the Arabic alphabet. 



4 


9 


2 


3 


5 


7 


8 


1 


6 



> 


y 


* 


H 


•» 


j 


I 


i 


j 



Each letter 
stands for the 
number as in- 
dicated. 



This square is supposed to have been revealed 
to al-Ghazali, and is now known by his name. 
It has become the foundation and starting-point 
for a whole science of talismanic symbols. Some 
of the Moslem authorities say that Adam invented 
the square. It is called Buduh because these let- 
ters are the corner letters and the key to the com- 
bination. To the popular mind this word Buduh 
has become a sort of guardian angel, invoking 
both good and bad fortune. The square is used 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 129 

against stomach pains, to render one's self in- 
visible, to protect from the evil eye, and to open 
locks, but the most common use is to insure the 
safe arrival of letters and packages. 

There is a whole science of amulets, exorcism, 
and Moslem witchcraft. One of the learned men 
of Bahrein, Arabia, some years ago gave me 
the standard work on the subject, which has run 
to many editions. It is by Abu- Abbas al-Buni, 
and is entitled " Shems-ul-Muarif . ' ' There are 
many traces of Christian influence in the later 
development of Mohammedanism, and the use of 
the cross as a symbol to ward off evil is one of 
them. In Egypt some Moslem children wear 
silver crosses which have a rough image of our 
Saviour on one side and a verse from the Koran 
on the other, to drive off the devil! 

Among the Shiah Moslems the most common 
amulet is called Nadi-Ali. It consists generally 
of a lead or silver plate with little bells at the 
bottom, inscribed with these words : 

" Cry aloud to Ali ; lie is the possessor of wonders, 
From him you will find help from trouble. 
He takes away very quickly all grief and anxiety 
By the mission of Mohammed and his own sanctity." 

There are innumerable cases where such amu- 
lets are used for the cure of disease. The native 
doctors firmly believe that when every other 



130 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

remedy fails, the Book of Allah, if properly ad- 
ministered, internally or externally, will drive 
away pain and cure the patient. 

We must not think that this belief in the power 
of talismans and amulets is a thing of the past. 
From one end of the Moslem world to the other, 
there is still unquestioning faith in the power of 
such religious magic. Professor MacDonald in his 
recent book, "The Religious Attitude and Life in 
Islam," says: 

"Scattered among the educated classes, it is 
true, you will meet a good deal of absolute Vol- 
tairean unbelief, but even these individuals are 
liable to set back at any time. The shell that 
separates the Oriental from the unseen is still 
very thin, and the charms or amulet of the ma- 
gician may easily break it. The world of the 
' Arabian Nights' is still his world, and these 
stories for him are not tales from wonderland, but 
are, rather, to be compared to our stories of the 
wonders and possibilities of science, such as M. 
Jules Verne used to write and which we now owe 
toMr. H.G. Wells.' > 

Among the most grovelling superstitions are 
those prevalent on the border-marches of Islam, 
among the half -pagan tribes in West and Central 
Africa. It seems almost incredible that among 
the Wolofs and other tribes the favourite amulet 
worn against the evil eye, disease, and death is 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 131 

the prepuce removed at circumcision. 1 But older 
Moslem lands are equally superstitious. Dr. 
Robert Kerr, who spent twenty-five years in Mo- 
rocco, devotes an entire chapter in his book to the 
subject. Belief in the evil eye prevails every- 
where. "The Moors write charms, couplets from 
the Koran, etc., and place them over the doorways 
and in the rooms as a safeguard. The Black Art 
is practised as a science and is divided into three 
or four branches, each of which has its learned 
professors.' ' More than half of the ills which 
afflict the children, they believe are caused by the 
evil eye. Doughty, in his "Arabian Travels," 
gives many instances of similar superstitions. 
This one is typical. 

"A young mother, yet a slender girl, brought 
her wretched babe, and bade me spit upon the 
child's sore eyes; this ancient Semitic opinion 
and custom I afterwards found wherever I went 
in Arabia. (Meteyr nomads in el-Kasim have 
brought me bread and salt, that I should spit in 
it for their sick friends.) Her gossips followed 
to make this request with her, and when I blamed 
their superstition they answered simply that i such 
was the custom here from time out of mind. , 

1 " Chez les Ouolofs, le prepuce a comme amulette une valeur 
remarquable mais toute a fait specialised a l'interesse. Aussitot 
l'operation de la circoncision achevee, le prepuce est enferme 
sanglant dans un pan du boubou que porte l'enfant. Ce boubou 
est soigneusement conserve." (Revue du Monde Musulman, June, 
1914; p. 333.) 



132 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Also the Arabians will spit upon a lock which 
cannot easily be opened.' 9 

Concerning the many superstitions prevalent 
among the Moslems of India, the reader must con- 
sult Herklot's "Qanoon-e-Islam" (London, 1832). 
This curious volume was prepared by a native 
of the Deccan, and contains a full and exact ac- 
count of the various rites and ceremonies con- 
nected with Moslem life from the moment of birth 
until the hour of death. Many of the practices 
described are doubtless related to Hinduism or 
Animism, but nevertheless they have become the 
daily environment of Moslem childhood and per- 
sist even today in spite of the progress of educa- 
tion. The author tells how the science of exorcism 
is practised upon children, and how demons of 
illness are cast out. In some cases they make a 
small wax doll, fasten one extremity of a hair 
to the crown of its head and the other to the 
bottom of a cork, fill the bottle with smoke, put 
the doll into it and cork it up. The operator, 
"the moment the demoniac falls on the ground, 
pulls out a hair or two as above stated, and con- 
trives to insert them into the bottle ; and holding 
it up to public view, he exclaims, ' Behold ! I have 
cast the devil out of the demoniac and confined 
him in this bottle. There he is, standing in the 
middle of it, longing to come out. Now, if you 
give me so much money, well and good; if not, 






■r, : : 







TUNISIAN CHILDREN 

The small boy has a native drum and the larger girl has amulets 
tied to her head-dress. 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 133 

I will let him loose again.' Those foolish people, 
on beholding the doll in the bottle, actually believe 
it to be the devil himself, and out of fear give 
him any sum of money he asks, and get it buried 
or burnt. ' ' The casting out of demons is also prac- 
tised in Egypt, and so common is this ceremony 
of the Zar that children imitate it in their play. 1 

"The demon in one of the family is a Chris- 
tian," says Miss Thompson of Cairo, "and the 
possessed woman wears a silver cross and a 
crucifix to keep him happy. If she were to take 
these off she would suffer. She also wears a silver 
medallion with bells on it and silver rings on each 
finger, one having a cross on it. Her child danced 
with the drums. A curious thing was that this 
woman spent a few months in a mission school 
years ago, and she promised to send her daughter 
to be educated by us in the same building. 

"The performance began when the patient was 
seated on the floor, by the sheikha drumming 
vigorously and chanting over her head. One 
elderly relative, who was standing, began to sway 
back and forth and was followed by the patient 
and others. After a period of rest, during which 
some smoked, the woman was told to rise, and the 
sheikha held her head, then each hand, the hem 
of her dress, and each foot over the incense which 
had been burned before the food on the tray. 

1 On the Zar, see The Moslem World, Vol. Ill, pp. 275-290. 



134 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Ten or fifteen others had the incense treatment 
in the same way. This was after the sheikha had 
called on all the mashayikh, or demons, and had 
repeated the Fatiha about five times, during 
which the drums played and all the company 
chanted ; at a given signal on the drums, each one 
covered her face with a white veil. The patient 
rose and began swaying and contorting her body 
as she went slowly around the table, followed by 
others. When a performer was too vigorous, an 
onlooker would take a little flour or salt and 
sprinkle it over her head, following her around 
the circle to prevent her falling. In the midst 
of all the din . . . the patient at last sank down 
panting, and the sheikha took a large mouthful 
from a bottle of rosewater, and spattered it with 
force over each performer. ' ' 

When we remember that such beliefs and prac- 
tices as we have described above are prevalent 
everywhere, and that the women especially are 
under this iron bondage, we can imagine the effect 
upon the growing mind of a child. The teacher of 
the mosque school himself believes most of these 
superstitions, and as Professor MacDonald re- 
marks, these men who are set apart for the train- 
ing of children "are everywhere a byword for 
sloth, immorality, greed, and ignorance.' ' Gold- 
ziher, — than whom there is no higher authority ? — 
tells us that in Arabic literature their position is 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 135 

on a level with weavers, blood-letters, and other 
despised trades. Teachers were universally 
spoken of as a stupid and brainless class, and the 
prevailing attitude toward them was always one 
of extreme disrespect. The phrase "more stupid 
than a schoolmaster" has passed into a proverb. 
The Traditions speak not only of the ignorance 
of teachers but of their moral shortcomings. Mo- 
hammed is reported to have said, "Their money 
is forbidden property, their livelihood is unjust 
gain, their speech hypocrisy. ' ' The scandals con- 
nected with boys' schools from the earliest times 
have given rise to special regulations designed to 
obviate suspicion, such as, for example, that no 
pupil was to receive private instruction at the 
home of his teacher, but within the sight of the 
people. The teacher is described as "one who 
brandishes the whip and takes reward for teach- 
ing the Book of God." 

The shackles of ignorance remain on the mind 
of the child even after the boy has absorbed a 
certain amount of so-called book learning. Edu- 
cation does not give freedom. The Koran remains 
the procrustean bed of the human intellect. 
Everything bends to its authority, as we shall see 
when we consider their method of schooling. 

The education of a boy, says tradition, is to 
begin at the age of four years, four months, and 
four days. On that auspicious day he is taught 



136 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

to repeat the Bismilldh, or opening chapter of the 
Koran. Soon after the child, if of well-to-do par- 
ents, is sent to a day school and taught the al- 
phabet. The school is most probably a corner of 
a merchant's shop, or an alcove in a mosque 
without any furniture save mats and rahils 
(small folding book-stands, resembling a tiny saw- 
buck). The schoolmaster sits on the floor in the 
midst of the lads, who all drone out their lessons 
at the same time ; there is no attempt at grading 
the pupils nor is there order in the schoolroom. 
The master's trained ear can, however, distin- 
guish a mispronounced vowel or detect a word 
omitted from Allah's book, though a score of 
voices make a confusion of tongues like Babel. 
One lad is still at his alphabet ; another has gone 
as far as Abjad, or the numerical value of the 
letters; a third is spelling out the first Surah; 
while yet others are reading from the middle of 
the Koran at the top of their voices. 

In Arabia and other lands untouched by mod- 
ern Western educational reform, the earliest and 
only text-book is the Koran or portions of it 
cheaply lithographed on second-class paper. Of 
course there are no pictures in the Moslem 
primers, for tradition states that Mohammed 
cursed all who would paint or draw men and 
animals. Consequently, their work is held to be 
unlawful. There is neither prayer nor singing 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 137 

when the school opens; all orthodox praying is 
at daybreak when boys are fast asleep, and as for 
singing, Mohammed said, "Singing or hearing 
songs causeth hypocrisy to grow in the heart even 
as the rain causeth corn to grow in the field.' ' 
(MishkatXXII:9:3.) 

To the American schoolboy, a Mohammedan 
school and a Mohammedan school-book would ap- 
pear the dullest things on earth. Yet the Arab 
boys seem to enjoy school, for there is continual 
distraction, and, especially if the schoolmaster is 
a shop-keeper, plenty of time for idling. While 
a customer bargains or the water-carrier passes, 
or the coffee-shop keeper pours out the teacher's 
daily beverage, naturally all eyes turn away from 
their books. The mixed procession of Oriental 
street life passes before the schoolroom (which 
is nearly always open to the street), like a con- 
tinuous panorama — horses, camels, drivers, don- 
keys, veiled women, pastry-sellers, pashas, sol- 
diers, beggars, and Bedouins. It is no wonder 
that all learning becomes a matter of rote and 
that the best memory receives the prize. 

Right here we stumble upon the supreme fault 
in their theory of education. The memory is 
trained to the utmost, while the reasoning powers 
are left entirely undeveloped. A Moslem lad is 
not supposed to know what the words and sen- 
tences mean which he must recite every day; to 



138 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

ask a question regarding the thought of the Koran 
would only result in a rebuke or something more 
painful. Even grammar, logic, history, and the- 
ology are taught by rote in the higher Moham- 
medan schools. Since orthodoxy cannot allow a 
place for private judgment in the professor's 
chair there remains no reason why pupils should 
think for themselves. Thousands of Moslem lads 
who know the whole Koran by heart, cannot ex- 
plain the meaning of the first chapter in every- 
day language. Tens of thousands can read the 
Koran at random, in the Moslem sense of read- 
ing, who cannot read an Arabic newspaper intel- 
ligently. The alpha and omega of knowledge is 
the one hundred and fourteen chapters of Allah's 
revelation. What need is there for other text- 
books? 

Writing is taught by means of a wooden slate, 
or copy-books made by the teachers. In the moun- 
tain villages of Oman one may still see the chil- 
dren writing on the bleached shoulder-blades of 
camels in the same fashion as the verses of the 
Koran were taken down from the Prophet's lips 
before the Hejira. Slates and pencils are prac- 
tically unknown in most Moslem schools. Even 
in Al Azhar University at Cairo the children copy 
their Koran lessons on tin slates made from the 
empty cases of the Standard Oil Company. The 
youngest child begins with a reed pen and native 




A LAD FROM TUNIS 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 139 

ink to write on such material. Calligraphy is not 
only a science, but the chief fine art in that part 
of the world which abhors painting, statuary, and 
music. To write a beautiful Arabic hand is the 
height of youthful, scholarly ambition. It is dif- 
ficult even to cut the reed nib aright, although 
some schoolboys become adepts in this use of the 
penknife. The ink is generally made by the 
teacher. It is rich, black, and thick, and is made 
from lampblack, vinegar, red ochre, yellow 
arsenic, and camphor in mysterious proportions. 
A famous recipe for ink is a family treasure. 

When a boy has finished the reading of the 
whole of the Koran for the first time and has 
learned the rudiments of writing, he graduates 
from the primary school. On this occasion he 
has a rare holiday. Dressed in fine clothes, per- 
haps mounted on horseback, he visits the neigh- 
bours, receives gifts and sweetmeats, and brings 
a handsome present to his tutor. If he does not 
intend to become a doctor of divinity or of herbs, 
this is the end of his schooldays and the lad is 
put to learning a trade or helping his parents. 

All the maxims that relate to the training and 
instruction of the youth refer, of course, only to 
boys. The education of girls was not anticipated. 
Woman's sphere was marriage and the home, as 
soon as she passed out of the portals of child- 
hood. The Prophet's saying is frequently quoted 



140 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

in regard to girls : i i Do not let them frequent the 
roofs, do not teach them the art of writing ; teach 
them spinning and the chapter of the Koran called 
En Nur." Goldziher adds, after quoting this para- 
graph, "It is surely preposterous to regard this 
surah as suitable for the training of young girls, 
containing, as it does, revelations which refer to 
women of known or suspected immoral life. ' ' It 
is a current saying that a woman who is taught 
to write is like a serpent which is given poison 
to drink. 

For a liberal education the boy is sent to one 
of the higher schools in the centres of Moslem 
learning, such as Cairo, Baghdad, or Damascus. 
Students of medicine obtain a smattering of the 
natural sciences and then read Hippocrates and 
Avicena under their teachers. There is no dis- 
secting and no practical experiments are carried 
on. Of course, none of the text-books have illus- 
trations. Students of divinity pursue the follow- 
ing branches of study: Grammatical inflection, 
syntax, logic, arithmetic, algebra, rhetoric, juris- 
prudence, scholastic theology, commentaries on 
the Koran, exegesis, and finally tradition with 
commentaries thereon. Next to the Koran itself, 
and because of it, the Arabic language is the most 
important centre of the group of sciences: lexi- 
cology, accidence, derivation, syntax, eloquence, 
prosody, rhyme, calligraphy, versification, and 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 141 

prose composition, — all these require separate 
study from special treatises; the result in this 
case is a proud master grammarian who has no 
doubt that Arabic is the language of the angels 
and the only speech of God. 

The whole theory of Moslem education is so 
thoroughly bound up with Islam and its require- 
ments that even the government schools of Egypt 
and Moslem schools in India have not been able 
to throw off the yoke of bondage to tradition. In 
consequence, the primers and reading books for 
primary classes contain much that a child ought 
not to know concerning the Moslem ritual of puri- 
fication, etc. A primer used in the Khedivial 
schools of Cairo, for example, has the following 
contents: After an invocation upon God, the al- 
phabet is given; the vowel system follows with 
simple combinations and words. Then come the 
names of the parts of the body, the live senses, 
and six stories or fables. The book concludes 
with a summary of the pillars of the Moslem 
religion and the practice of jurisprudence, utterly 
unsuited to the infant mind; e.g., "It is necessary 
for man to believe that his Creator has twenty 
attributes. These are existence, eternity, ever- 
lastingness, infinity, power, will, knowledge, life, 
hearing, sight, speech, etc. Concerning the apos- 
tles, he must believe that they are immaculate of 
both greater and lesser sins, even as the angels.' ' 



142 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

This brief theological lesson is followed by a 
genealogy of the prophet Mohammed both on his 
father's and mother's side, a list of his children, 
and then this child's primer of thirty- two pages 
closes with a list of the ninety-nine beautiful 
names of God and two prayers. 

Another child's book which is widely in use is 
called "The Happiness of Beginners in the Sci- 
ence of Religion." It was printed at Cairo in 
1330 A.H. by Sheikh Mohammed Amin el Kurdi. 
In the preface we are told that it is specially 
suitable for young girls and boys, yet this little 
book could not possibly be translated verbatim 
into English without breaking the law against im- 
moral publications. The first part of the book 
also treats of Moslem theology, but includes a 
chapter on purification which is utterly unfit for 
the mind of any child, giving, as it does, all the 
disgusting details of the Moslem ritual )f or mar- 
ried folk, as well as a special section on menstrua- 
tion and childbirth. In the section on prayer 
little children read as follows: "Go4 has com- 
manded His people to observe five regular 
prayers, and the guardian or the parent of the 
child is responsible that they observe these times 
of prayer faithfully; and they must teach them 
its ritual before they are seven years of age, and 
punish them with blows if they do not pray when 
they have reached the age of ten. Those who 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 143 

neglect their prayers shall be severely punished 
unless they repent, and if they continue to neglect 
them shall be considered infidels and be slain like 
the rest of those who have become reprobates. 
Nor shall prayer be said over them after death, 
nor shall they receive Moslem burial." 

The Moslems of India, even those who have 
received a Western education, cling to the same 
ideals. In "The Muslim Guide,' ' by Haji Riaz- 
ud-Din Ahmed, late tutor to the grandson of the 
Begum of Bhopal, and printed at Lahore (third 
edition), we read these words in the chapter on 
Prayer : 

"To perform prayer it is necessary to make 
wuzoo (ablution). There are four essential things 
in wuzoo: (1) to wash the face from the hairs at 
the forehead down to the chin; (2) to wash both 
the hands up to the elbows; (3) to make masah 
with water at the fourth part of the head; (4) 
to wash both the feet up to the ankles. If any 
of these parts are left unwashed, even to the 
breadth of a hair, the wuzoo will not be complete. 
The Prophet (peace be upon him) has taught ad- 
ditional purification. ... 

"There are three essential things in ghusal 
(washing): (1) Taking water into the mouth; 
(2) purifying the nostrils; (3) throwing water 
once over the whole body. But the Prophet has 
further ordered that, after removing the unclean- 



144 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

liness existing on the body, wuzoo should be per- 
formed. Ghusal becomes necessary for both men 
and women on cohabitation, as well as in other 
circumstances to be looked for in religious books 
treating specially of the subjects of ghusal. A 
man without wuzoo is not to touch the Koran, but 
he is allowed to read it by heart ; but a man requir- 
ing ghusal should neither touch the Koran nor 
read it by heart. He is not even allowed to enter 
the mosque, neither to move round the Kaaba in 
Mecca.' ' 

The result of this sort of religious training, 
where sex education has gone mad, is evident 
on every hand. Immoral ideas lie dormant in 
the minds of even mere infants, and the language 
which they learn to use is deplorable. According 
to the testimony of Dr. Hoskins, Moslem methods 
of education are entirely antiquated and show 
everywhere the intolerant spirit of Islam. ' ' Mos- 
lem children, ' ' he writes, ' ' are dirty, diseased, un- 
trained, knowing altogether too much for their 
years of things veiled in Christian lands. They 
are inferior to even the most ignorant Christians ; 
the boys given to nameless vices, therefore un- 
clean and stunted intellectually. Moslem parents 
are kind to their children, but they also teach 
them to swear and curse in fun. A little later 
they curse in earnest, and then ignorant parents 
resort to great cruelty. These are the general 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 145 

conditions. On the other hand, there are good 
families where parental discipline is of the highest 
order, though the relations of parents and chil- 
dren have never anything of comradeship. ' ' 

There is no light literature specially prepared 
for children. The chief books current in Moslem 
lands which are accessible to children, and which 
are the basis of folklore and fireside gossip, out- 
side the Koran, are the following: Eth-Thalabi, 
"Kusus al Anbiya," which contains stories of all 
the prophets and apostles, many of them based 
on tradition, most of them puerile, and nearly all 
of them indecent in their references to marriage 
and home life; "The [unexpurgated] Arabian 
Nights," or stories selected from them; Ad- 
Damiri's "Zoological Lexicon,' ' widely current 
in all Moslem lands: a sort of encyclopedia of 
things in heaven above, on the earth beneath, and 
in the waters under the earth. One has only to 
turn the pages of this book in its English trans- 
lation to see how unsuitable are Moslem stories 
for the education of a child. It is hard to select 
samples, but I will give three by way of illustra- 
tion. Most of the stories in this book are un- 
translatable. Here are two fish stories: 

"Al-Kazwini relates in Aja'ib al-makMukat, on 
the authority of 'Abd-ar-Rahman bin Harun al- 
Magrabi, who said, 'I went on a voyage in the 
sea of Morocco and arrived at a place called al- 



146 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Bartun. We had with us a Sicilian boy, who had 
with him a fishing-hook; he threw it into the sea 
and fished up with it a fish about a span in length. 
We looked at it and found written on the back 
of its right ear, There is no deity but God; on 
the back of its neck, Muhammad ; and on the back 
of its left ear, the apostle of God.' " 

"The Imam Ahmad relates in az-Zuhd, on the 
authority of Nawf-al-Bakali, who said, ' A believer 
and an unbeliever once set out for fishing; the 
unbeliever used to cast his net and take the name 
of his deity (idol), upon which the net used to be 
filled with fish, whilst the believer used to throw 
his net and take the name of God, but could not 
succeed in getting anything. They did that until 
sunset, when the believer caught a fish, which he 
took in his hand, upon which it became agitated 
and fell into the water, so that the believer re- 
turned without anything, whilst the unbeliever 
returned with his boat full. The guardian angel 
of the believer thereupon became dejected and 
said, "0 Lord, Thy believing servant, who asks 
in Thy name, has returned without anything, 
whilst Thy unbelieving servant has returned with 
his boat full." God said to the guardian angel 
of the believer, "Come," and then showed him 
the dwelling-place of the believer in Paradise, 
saying, "What has befallen this my believing 
servant will not harm him, when he comes to 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 147 

possess this." He then showed him the dwelling- 
place of the unbeliever in hell-fire, saying, " Would 
anything he has found in the world stand in good 
stead for him?" The angel replied, "No, by God, 
OLord!"'" 

Here is a better story, which at least teaches 
the evils of drink. 

"It is related that, when Adam planted the 
vine-creeper, Iblis came there and slaughtered 
over it a peacock, and the creeper drank its blood. 
When its leaves came forth, he slaughtered over 
it an ape, and the creeper drank its blood. When 
its fruit came out, he slaughtered over it a lion, 
and the creeper drank its blood. When its fruit 
was fully ripe, he slaughtered over it a pig, and 
the creeper drank its blood. On this account the 
descriptive qualities of these four animals seize 
a drinker of wine in this way : when he first drinks 
it and it creeps into his limbs, his colour becomes 
red, and he appears handsome as a peacock does ; 
when the commencement of intoxication sets in, 
he plays, claps his hands, and dances as an ape 
does; when the intoxication becomes strong, the 
leonine quality comes upon him, and he sports 
and behaves in an annoying manner towards his 
companions and talks, incoherently, useless non- 
sense; he is then affected with torpor in the 
manner that a pig is affected with it, seeks sleep, 
and the strings of his strength become loose." 



148 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Our last story might be called a Bible Story 
for Moslem boys and girls. It is based on the 
second chapter of the Koran, and tells the story 
of the heifer there mentioned. 

"It is related that it happened that there was 
a certain pious man among the Beni-Isra'il, who 
had an infant son possessing a heifer. He took 
it to a thicket and said, ' God, I leave this heifer 
in Thy charge for my son until he grows up.' 
The man then died, and the heifer grew up into 
a middle-aged cow in the thicket, but she used 
to run away from everybody that saw her. When 
the boy also grew up and was dutiful to his 
mother, he used to divide the night into three 
portions, one of which he devoted to prayer, an- 
other to sleep, and the third to watching at the 
head of his mother. In the morning he used to 
go out, collect wood, and bring it on his back to 
the market for sale; a third of the proceeds of 
it he used to spend in alms, another third in 
feeding himself, and the remaining third he used 
to give to his mother. 

"One day his mother told him, 'Your father 
has left for you the legacy of a heifer in the 
charge of God, in such and such a thicket. Go 
forth, therefore, and pray to the God of Abraham, 
Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob to return her to you. 
The sign by which she is to be recognized is that 
directly you see her, you would imagine sun's 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 149 

rays to be proceeding from her skin. ' The heifer 
was named on account of its beauty and yellow 
colour al-Mudhahhabah (the gilt one). The youth 
then went to the thicket and saw her grazing, upon 
which he shouted out to her, 'I conjure thee by 
the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob to 
come to me.' The heifer thereupon turned to- 
wards him and, running, stood before him. He 
then seized her by her neck and was about to lead 
her, when she spoke by the order of God, ' you 
youth, who are so dutiful to your mother, ride me, 
in which case it would be easier for yourself. ' The 
youth, however, replied, 'My mother has not or- 
dered me to do that, but she told me, ' ' Seize her 
by the neck.'* ' The heifer thereupon said, 'By 
the God of the Beni-Isra'il, had you mounted me, 
you could never have had me in your power ; but 
go on, for even if you order a mountain to root 
itself out and go with you, it would do it, on ac- 
count of your dutifulness to your mother. ' 

' ' The youth then went with her to his mother, 
who said, 'You are poor and have no property, 
and it is difficult for you to collect wood in the 
day and to watch at night ; go forth therefore and 
sell the cow.' He asked her, 'For how much 
shall I sell her!' She replied, 'For three dinars, 
but not without consulting me first.' The price 
of a cow at that time was three dinars. The 
youth went with the cow to the market, and God 



150 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

sent to him an angel in order to show His crea- 
tures His power and to try the youth's dutiful- 
ness to his mother : ' Verily, God is knowing and 
aware/ The angel asked him, 'For how much 
will you sell this cow?' and he replied, 'For 
three dinars, but I make the condition with you 
of my mother being pleased with the bargain.' 
The angel said, 'I shall give you six dinars, if 
you do not consult your mother.' The youth re- 
plied, 'Even if you give me the weight of the cow 
in gold, I shall not take it without my mother's 
consent.' He then returned to his mother and 
informed her of the price, upon which she said to 
him, 'Eeturn and sell her for six dinars, but 
dependent on my consent.' He therefore went 
again to the market, and the angel came again 
and asked him, 'Have you consulted your 
mother?' The youth replied, 'She has ordered 
me not to reduce the price to anything less than 
six dinars, but that, too, on the condition of con- 
sulting her.' The angel then said to him, 'I shall 
give you twelve dinars, provided you do not con- 
sult your mother. ' 

"The youth, however, refused, and returning 
to his mother informed her of it. She said, ' The 
person who comes to you is an angel in the guise 
of a human being to try you ; if he comes to you 
again, ask him, "Do you order us to sell this cow 
or not?" ' The youth did as he was told, and 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 151 

the angel replied, 'Go to your mother and tell 
her, ' ' Keep this cow, for Moses will buy her from 
you, on account of the murdered man out of the 
Beni-Isra'il, and do not sell her for less than her 
skin full of dinars." ' They therefore kept back 
the cow, and God decreed for the Beni-Isra'il to 
kill that very cow, in compensation to the youth 
for his dutif ulness to his mother and out of His 
kindness and mercy (which happened in this 
way) : The Beni-Isra'il kept constantly asking for 
a description of the cow, until this very cow was 
described to them. ' ' 

And lest the reader should think that these 
stories are not truly representative, here is one 
from the Koran itself — also, alas ! a fish story. 

"And remember when Moses said unto his 
servant Joshua, the son of Nun, I will not cease 
to go forward, until I come to the place where 
the two seas meet; or I will travel for a long 
space of time. But when they were arrived at 
the meeting of the two seas, they forgot their 
fish which they had taken with them. Moses said 
unto his servant, Bring us our dinner, for now 
are we fatigued with this our journey. His 
servant answered, Dost thou know what has be- 
fallen me ? When we took up our lodgings at the 
rock, verily I forgot the fish; and none made me 
to forget it, except Satan that I should not remind 
thee of it. And the fish took its way in the sea, 



152 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

in a wonderful manner. Moses said, This is what 
we sought after. And they both went back, re- 
turning by the way they came." 

And the remainder of this curious story is not 
more intelligible, as recorded in the chapter of the 
Koran called The Cave— 59-64. 

A very curious side-light is thrown upon the 
Moslem idea of education, as well as on their 
utter ignorance of New Testament history, in 
what they say concerning the education of our 
Saviour Jesus, the Son of Mary. 

"When Jesus was born and He was a day old, 
it was as though He was a month old ; and when 
He was nine months old, His mother took Him 
by the hand and led Him to the school and placed 
Him between the hands of the teacher; and the 
teacher said to Him, 'Say, Bismillah er-rahman 
er-rahim.' Then Jesus said it. The teacher said, 
'Say Abjad.' (The first word in a mnemonic 
series containing the Arabic alphabet, following 
the ancient or numerical order, and used as 
numerals by the Arabs until superseded by later 
notation. Each word in the series is here inter- 
preted fancifully with a play on the Arabic root.) 
Then Jesus (upon whom be peace) lifted up His 
head and said to him, 'Do you know what abjad 
means V Then the teacher lifted up his rod to 
strike Him, and Jesus said, '0 teacher! do not 
strike me if you know; if you do not know, ask 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 153 

me, so that I can explain it to you.' Then the 
teacher said, ' Explain it to me.' And Jesns said, 
' Alif means that there is no god bnt God; the ba 
stands for the glory of God; the jim for the maj- 
esty of God ; and the dal for the religion of God. 
Hawwaz: Ha stands for hell, and the waw stands 
for woe to the people of the fire, and the za stands 
for their groanings in hell. Hatta signifies that 
their sins can never be forgiven. Kalman sig- 
nifies the Word of God Uncreated and Unchange- 
able. Safas signifies measure for measure and 
part for part. Karshat signifies that God will 
collect them at the time of the resurrection. Then 
the teacher said to His mother, '0 Woman, take 
Thy child, for He knows everything and does not 
need a teacher. ' " 

The cruel use of the rod is universal in the vil- 
lage school from Morocco to Afghanistan. Mar- 
tin writes that under the Absolute Amir there is 
no "sparing the rod and spoiling the child, and 
when the master wishes to punish one of them, 
the small offender is held on his back, with his 
legs up in the air, and receives so many cuts on 
the soles of his feet, and while the punishment 
lasts he howls piteously. Sometimes in passing 
a school I have stopped, thinking a child was 
surely being murdered, until I saw the reason why 
the boy was howling." 

In Kashmir, where the vast majority of the 



154 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

population is Mohammedan, we are told that not 
a dozen men know Arabic thoroughly. They re- 
cite the Koran like parrots, and yet here also the 
Koran is taught by mullahs to boys from four 
years old and upward, who understand nothing 
of its meaning and only learn it by rote. 
Throughout the whole of India, Persia, Turkey, 
and other non- Arabic-speaking lands, the Arabic 
Koran is still considered the chief text-book of 
religion and children are taught its chapters with- 
out any particular attempt at translation or inter- 
pretation. Away from the centres of population 
and among the nomad tribes of the Sahara Des- 
ert, the Egyptian Sudan, Arabia, Southern 
Persia, and Central Asia, there is no book 
learning, but children are trained from birth 
in the hard school of nomad life, fatigue, and 
danger. Burckhardt says of Arabia: "I have 
seen parties of naked boys playing at noonday 
upon the burning sand in the middle of 
summer, running till they had fatigued them- 
selves, and when they returned to their fathers' 
tents they were scolded for not continuing the 
exercise. Instead of teaching the boy civil man- 
ners, the father desires him to beat and pelt the 
strangers who come to the tent ; to steal or secrete 
some trifling article belonging to them. The more 
saucy and impudent children are the more they 
are praised, since this is taken as an indication 



THE MIND OF A MOSLEM CHILD 155 

of future enterprise and warlike disposition. ' ' 
The children of the desert have no book save the 
Book of Nature. Yet we may believe that this 
magnificent picture book is never more diligently 
studied than by those little dark eyes which watch 
the sheep at pasture or count the stars in the 
blue abyss from their perch on a lofty camel's 
saddle in the midnight journeyings. 

When the nomad lad grows up, and begins to 
swear by the few straggling hairs on his chin, 
he cannot read a letter, but he knows men and 
he knows the desert. The talk heard at night 
around the sheikh's tent or the acacia-brush fire- 
side is much like the wisdom of the book of Job. 
A philosophy of submission to the world as it is ; 
a deification of stoicism or patience; a profound 
trust that all will end well at last. Sad to say, 
even the little nomads, with their ignorance of 
all religion, share in the fanatical antagonism of 
their elders toward the Christian religion and 
Christians. One of their games, in Nejd, is to 
draw a cross on the desert and then defile it ; they 
learn that all outside the pale of Mohammed's 
creed are kafirs, and to please Allah are glad to 
throw stones at any wayfaring Nasrani. Little 
do the Bedouins and still less do their children, 
however, know of the religion of Islam. The 
Koran is not a book for children's minds, and of 
such is not the kingdom of Mohammed. 



156 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

When we consider the present condition of this 
world of childhood, its utter ignorance, supersti- 
tion, illiteracy, this horror of a great darkness 
hanging over Moslem hearts and homes, there 
rises before us the picture, familiar to all who 
have seen the East, of the debtor or the beggar 
climbing to the top of the minaret to ask for 
alms. How well I remember hearing such a cry 
of need from the crumbling minarets on the 
island of Bahrein: "Ya mal Allah! Ya hak 
Allah !" — "Give me God's own! Give me God's 
due!" If Moslem childhood could voice its own 
need, such would be its cry. 



In shadow of a crumbling mosque he stands, 
An aged mendicant with want outworn, 
Eyes from their sunken sockets ruthless torn, 
For crimes in lawless youth — for so demands 
The cruel Moslem code. With trembling hands 
Outheld for aid, he only lives to mourn 
Till kindly death beyond the earthly bourn 
Shall carry him at last and loose his bands. 
To motley crowds that careless come and go 
He murmurs, ' Give me what belongs to God.' 
That cry proclaims the debt that Christians owe 
His country where Mohammed's legions trod, 
And with the sword their creed unholy spread, 
Robbing her children of the Living Bread." 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 



"Verily, a lie- is justifiable in three cases: to women, in war, 
and to patch up a quarrel between friends." — Mohammed. 

" The moral sense, in its objective form, is still very incomplete 
in little children, even between the ages of two and four. They 
have, however, a very advanced idea of what is allowed and 
what forbidden, of what they must or may, and what they must 
not do, as regards their physical and moral habits. Moral law 
is for them embodied in their parents, in the mother especially, 
even during their absence." — Bebnard Perez in " The First Three 
Years of Childhood." 

" Man is the absolute master and woman the slave. She is 
the object of his sensual pleasures, a toy, as it were, with which 
he plays, whenever and however he pleases. Knowledge is his, 
ignorance is hers. The firmament and the light are his, darkness 
and the dungeon are hers. His is to command, hers is to 
blindly obey. His is everything that is, and she is an insignificant 
part of that everything." — Kasim Bey Amin of Cairo, in his 
book "The New Woman." 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 

SUCH moral training as is given to the child 
of Mohammedan parents is necessarily 
based on their own ideas and ideals of ethics. 
If Christian ethics is conditioned by our faith 
in the teachings of the New Testament and the 
ideals of the character of Jesus Christ, to an 
equal degree Moslem ethics is based upon the 
Koran and the moral character of Mohammed. 
In this again we see the unity of Islam. How- 
ever different the environment, the stage of prog- 
ress, or the degree of civilization, all Moham- 
medans everywhere believe that ideal virtue is to 
be found through imitation of Mohammed, that 
the moral law is recorded in the precepts of the 
Koran, and that the highest good for the individ- 
ual and for the community consists in what Islam 
offers for this life and the life to come. 

In considering the moral training of a child, 
therefore, we must first study the moral concepts 
of this religion which, in the words of Dr. Robert 
E. Speer, "is held by many who have to live 
under its shadow to be the most degraded reli- 

159 



160 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

gion, morally, in the world. Missionaries from 
India will tell you that the actual moral condi- 
tions to be found among Mohammedans every- 
where are more terrible than those to be found 
even among the pantheistic Hindus themselves." 
And Adolph Wutke, in his "System of Ethics," 
speaks of Islam as an " attempt of heathenism to 
maintain itself erect under an outward monothe- 
istic form." 

The Moslem's idea of God and of His moral 
attributes differs widely from that of the Chris- 
tian. His conception of sin is different, and the 
division of sins into great and little, as well as 
the fact that there is no clear distinction between 
the ceremonial and the moral law, have an evil 
tendency in the sphere of ethics. All sins except 
great ones are easily forgiven, because God is 
merciful and clement. Dr. George F. Herrick, 
after fifty years' experience in Turkey, says: 

"The Moslem's apprehension of the moral at- 
tributes of God differs widely from that of the 
Christian. Paternal love has no place in his view 
of God. According to Islam, mercy and justice 
have no relation one to the other. Sin is not 
guilt, but weakness, and is forgiven through pity 
to the formally penitent. Eeligion and life are 
strangers one to the other." 

But this must not surprise us in the history of 
Moslem morals. A stream cannot rise higher 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 161 

than its source. A tower cannot be broader than 
its foundation. The measure of the moral stature 
of Mohammed is the source and foundation of all 
moral ideals in Islam. His conduct is the 
standard of character. Every detail of his life is 
attributed to divine permission or command, and 
so what appear to us as faults in his character 
are interpreted as special privileges or signs of 
superiority. Moslem boys and girls are taught 
to believe that God favoured their prophet above 
all creatures, and his name is never uttered by 
them or by their parents without the addition of 
these words, "Mohammed, upon him be prayers 
and peace." Poems in praise of the Prophet are 
read at festivals, sung by travelling dervishes, 
and printed in books of devotion. Here is an 
example of those current in China, and is sup- 
posed to have been written by the first emperor 
of the Ming Dynasty. It is less extravagant than 
many similar poems of Arabic literature. 



' In the beginnings of the heavens and the earth 
The records of Heaven recorded the name 
Of the great Preacher and Prophet, 
Who was born on the western boundaries, 
To receive and transmit the heavenly classic, 
Which consists of thirty sections and records 
For the enlightenment and instruction of all flesh. 
Millions own him as Prince and Teacher. 
Of all Prophets he is the chief, 
Assisting the heavens in their rotation, 
Protecting and shielding the reigning sovereign, 



162 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Observing five times for prayer each day, 
Beseeching for the national peace, 
Retaining the true Lord in the heart, 
Considering the poor with increasing care, 
Extending help in times of calamity, 
Even penetrating to the dark abyss, 
Lifting up the dead therein, 
Saving from the curse of sin, 
Causing benevolence to cover the earth again, 
His doctrine now and ever had fame. 
Subduing the depraved who turn to the Lord, 
Whose religion is known as the Pure and True, 
tWhile Muhammad is its most honoured Prophet." 

(James Hudson in the National Review, Shanghai, 
September 12, 1914.) 



It is not necessary to enter into the details of 
Mohammed's life and character. These are suf- 
ficiently revealed not only in the standard biog- 
raphies by Western scholars, but in the earliest 
sources of Islam itself, — the Koran and Tradition. 
The picture is anything but attractive. Bos- 
worth Smith, who has perhaps written the most 
able apology for the life of Mohammed, and who 
certainly cannot be accused of any bias, wrote: 
"The religion of Christ contains whole fields of 
morality and whole realms of thought which are 
all but outside the religion of Mohammed. It 
opens humility, purity of heart, forgiveness of 
injuries, sacrifice of self, to man's moral nature; 
it gives scope for toleration, development, bound- 
less progress to his mind; its motive power is 
stronger, even as a friend is better than a king, 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 163 

and love higher than obedience. Its realized 
ideals in the various paths of human greatness 
have been more commanding, more many-sided, 
more holy, as Averroes is below Newton, Harun 
below Alfred, and Ali below St. Paul." 

T. J. De Boer shows that, although the Koran 
urges faith and good intentions, "unpremedi- 
tated lapses from virtue are leniently judged. In 
short, Allah makes it no onerous task for His 
faithful to serve Him." Some have stated, and 
not without reason, that early Islam was abso- 
lutely destitute of ethical spirit, although Gold- 
ziher refuted this. The fact, however, remains 
that the mass of the people paid less attention to 
Koran precepts than to the actual life lived by 
Mohammed in his Medina period, "when his love 
was given mainly to women, and the objects of 
his hate and greed were the unbeliever and his 
possessions." Those who have carefully investi- 
gated Moslem ethics agree that the great bulk 
of its moral precepts bear an external and a 
commercial character. The believer has an ac- 
count with Allah of debits and credits, rather 
than a record of sins committed and forgiven. 

It is because of these low ideals that Islam has 
never developed strong moral natures. The fight 
for character, the attainment of high ideals, the 
crucifixion of self, — all this is absent to a degree 
which is almost inconceivable. As the Koran 



164< CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

itself states, "God desires to make things easy 
for men." The tendency of Islam is to develop 
a flabby moral nature, and this tendency is the 
inheritance of Moslem childhood. How different 
is the heritage of Christian childhood as voiced 
by the poet. We cannot even imagine a Moslem 
child expressing its gratitude in such terms, not 
even such children as boast of their direct de- 
scent from the holy Prophet ! 

" I thank Thee for a holy ancestry ; 

I bless Thee for a godly parentage; 
For seeds of truth and light and purity, 

Sown in this heart from childhood's earliest age. 

" For word and church and watchful ministry, 
The beacon and the tutor and the guide; 
For the parental hand and lip and eye, 
That kept me from the snares on every side. 

" I thank the love that kept my heart from sin, 

Even when my heart was far from God and truth, 
That gave me, for a lifetime's heritage, 
The purities of unpolluted youth." 

A startling revelation of the contrast between 
Moslem and Christian ideals in ethics can also be 
gained from a comparative study of popular lit- 
erature, the "Arabian Nights," for example, a 
mediaeval picture of Moslem life and morals, in 
contrast with the mediaeval romance of the 
"Knights of the Round Table.' ' Both books pre- 
sent unconsciously a picture of ideas and ideals 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 165 

in ethics. Womanhood in the one case is sus- 
pected, dishonoured, untrustworthy, and chiefly 
celebrated for her lower passions; in the other 
case, her purity and strength of character stand 
out as examples of moral greatness. 

The same contrast can be seen between Shake- 
speare and Al Hariri. The one, the poet of 
conscience, ever preaches the truth that the 
wages of sin is death and the reward of right- 
eousness, life. In the "Makamat" of Al Hariri, 
as Stanley Lane-Poole says, we see "a Bohemian 
of brilliant parts and absolutely no conscience, 
who constantly extracts alms from assemblies of 
people in various cities by preaching eloquent 
discourses of the highest piety and morality, 
and then goes off with his spoils to indulge 
secretly in triumphant and unhallowed revels.' ' 
Yet this collection of poems is the greatest 
literary treasure of the Arabs, next to the 
Koran. T. J. De Boer remarks: "When we 
examine the representation of the manners 
given in the ' Thousand and One Nights,' we 
see little indication of rigorous conformity to 
the law or of any profound and vital morality. 
We generally find ourselves in a society whose 
basis is largely sordid gain and whose life re- 
volves around wine, women, and song. The peo- 
ple know the moral code by heart, they indulge in 
pious meditations, but only by way of rhetorical 



166 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

embellishment. . . . We find a society, in fact, that 
fostered the virtues of worldly wisdom, polite 
intercourse, tolerance, and at the same time prac- 
tised all the old and prevalent vices in more re- 
fined forms.' ' 

The Koran gives very little on the teaching 
and training of childhood. Its references sur- 
prise one by their meagre content and low esti- 
mate of the child, but later writers have found 
in the Prophet's life those ideals for childhood 
and education concerning which the Koran is so 
strangely silent. It would not be an exaggera- 
tion to say that the Book of Proverbs contains 
vastly more and vastly higher ideals, both in 
regard to ethics and education, than does the whole 
literature of Islam. The entire teaching of the 
Koran on childhood is given in less than a dozen 
passages and may be summed up as follows. 

There is strong disapproval of the horrible 
practice of putting to death newborn girls, 
prevalent in the days before Mohammed. "Los- 
ers are they who kill their children foolishly, 
without knowledge. ' ' ( Surah 6 : 137-140. ) This 
matter is again referred to in Surah 6 : 151 and 
Surah 17:31. "Slay not your children for fear 
of poverty. We will provide for them." "Be- 
ware to slay them. It is a great sin." 

The Prophet goes into detail concerning the 
suckling and weaning of infants. (Surah 2 : 232.) 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 167 

"Mothers must suckle their children for two 
whole years." 

Children are a blessing of God, as is property 
and wealth. It is curious, however, to notice that 
in every passage wealth is mentioned before chil- 
dren. "Know that your wealth and your children 
are but a temptation, and thank God with whom 
is mighty hire." (Surah 8:28; 17:65; 34:35, 
39.) All of these passages teach that wealth and 
children will not deliver the believer in the day 
of judgment. "Neither your kindred nor your 
children shall profit you upon the resurrection 
day. It will separate you." (Surah 60:3.) 
Children are not only a blessing, but a snare and 
a temptation. " ye believers, let not your prop- 
erty nor your children divert you from the re- 
membrance of God." (Surah 63 : 9.) And again, 
"0 ye people, verily among your wives and your 
children are foes of yours. So beware of them. 
Your property and your children are but a trial. ' ' 
(Surah 64:14.) "0 ye folk, fear your God and 
dread the day when the father shall not atone 
for his son, nor shall the son atone for its par- 
ent." (Surah 31: 32.) 

There are one or two references to the birth 
of children (Surah 22:5), and in the division of 
the inheritance Mohammed teaches that the boy 
shall receive the portion of two girls. (Surah 
4: 10.) All this, however, contains nothing in re- 



168 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

gard to the duties of the child, nor its privileges. 
Two verses remain. In Surah 24 : 31 and 32, we 
are told that mothers need not veil themselves 
before their own children "who do not note wom- 
en's nakedness"; and finally in the same Surah, 
verse 59, we read: "When your children reach 
puberty, let them ask leave as those before them 
asked leave." The context shows that this last 
passage only signifies that children must not 
enter the harim without first asking permission! 

The one passage which gives a true message 
for children to honour their parents occurs in 
the chapter of the Night Journey, and reads: 
"Thy Lord has decreed . . . kindness to one's 
parents, whether one or both of them reach old 
age with thee; and say not to them, 'Fie!' and 
do not grumble at them, but speak to them a 
generous speech. And lower to them the wing of 
humility out of compassion, and say, '0 Lord! 
have compassion on them as they brought me 
up when I was little.' Your Lord knows best 
what is in your souls if ye be righteous, and 
verily, He is forgiving unto those who come back 
penitent. And give thy kinsman his due and the 
poor and the son of the road; and waste not 
wastefully, for the wasteful were ever the devil's 
brothers; and the devil is ever ungrateful to his 
Lord." 

The Koran, of course, inculcates general moral 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 169 

duties, according to the standards of Mohammed, 
praises the upright, threatens unbelievers, en- 
joins the care of orphans, obedience to parents, 
alms to the poor, and kindness to the oppressed. 
But in all this teaching there is scarcely any refer- 
ence to childhood, and as we have already seen, 
according to Moslem ethics, the child is not held 
responsible for its moral acts until it has reached 
the age of puberty. 

Outside of the Koran a rather large literature 
exists on Adab, or politeness, etiquette, morals, 
which is sometimes within the reach of children; 
but it is difficult for parent or child to say where 
etiquette ends and morals begin. Certain vir- 
tues, such as patience, humility, gentleness, re- 
finement of speech, and care of the sick, are com- 
mended, and the opposite vices held up to con- 
tempt ; but there is always the tendency to narrow 
the circle of philanthropy to Moslems. These 
mediaeval admonitions on morals and behaviour 
are copied out in school or quoted as proverbs, 
but are generally considered as counsels of per- 
fection. Not even the saints in the Moslem cal- 
endar attained to these virtues in any large 
measure, therefore what hope is there for ordi- 
nary mortals! " Those who recount the history 
of Islam,' ' writes Margoliouth, "have to lay 
aside all ordinary canons of morality, else the pic- 
ture would have no lights; they could not write 



170 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

at all if they let themselves be shocked by perfidy 
or bloodthirstiness, by cruelty or lust. Yet both 
the Koran and the Tradition forbid the first three, 
and assign some limits to the fourth.' ' 

And beside this discrepancy between theory and 
practice, the theory itself is not accessible to the 
vast majority who are sunk in ignorance and su- 
perstition, and have never heard the names of 
these Moslem writers. The theory exists, we must 
acknowledge, and those who wish to examine it 
more carefully will find it fully described by Pro- 
fessor MacDonald in a paper on the Moral Edu- 
cation of the Young among Moslems (Interna- 
tional Journal of Ethics, Vol. XV, p. 286). 
Within a stone's throw of Al Azhar University, 
however, and of the Paternoster Row of Cairo, 
where these books are printed, the condition of 
Moslem childhood is a sad commentary on the 
inefficiency of such moral training. The first sen- 
tence a child learns to speak in Egypt is often 
a phrase of impoliteness and insult. The mouths 
of little children are full of cursing and bitter- 
ness, and the way of peace they have not known. 
No amount of moral maxims can counteract the 
terrible effect of an immoral environment. Mos- 
lem children come into the world handicapped. 
The curse of Islam, through its polygamy, con- 
cubinage, and freedom of divorce, already rests 
upon them. All correspondents and missionaries, 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 171 

without exception, speak of these conditions, and 
say it is hardly conceivable that a child can grow- 
up pure-minded in such an atmosphere. Dr. Pen- 
nell testifies that in Afghanistan the boys of even 
the highest families suffer permanent moral in- 
jury by being brought up in the voluptuous and 
effeminate surroundings of the zenana. Mr. 
Cooksey of Tunis says: "Foul language, lying, 
treachery, and intrigue is their common life. 
Small boys curse and strike their mothers, who 
glory in this manliness, and immorality, includ- 
ing sodomy, is very rife among the adolescent." 

From earliest childhood Moslem children nearly 
everywhere are familiar with degrading conversa- 
tion, and this precocity of evil is doubtless due 
in many lands to scanty clothing and improper 
housing of children. Rev. Mr. Jessup writes from 
Persia: "In well-to-do houses the boys and girls 
are separated when little children, and are rele- 
gated to the men's and women's apartments re- 
spectively, where, in the company of their elders, 
they are exposed to coarse and impure language 
and degrading suggestions. . . . On the other 
hand, the children seem bright and happy and 
loved. Though at times cruelly treated, they are 
more often harmed through ignorance than ill 
will." 

Eev. John Van Ess, for many years a mis- 
sionary in Turkish Arabia, writes: "All Moslem 



172 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

boys learn elaborate and artistic profanity at 
home, a profanity which consigns the offender 
and all his ancestors and posterity to refined de- 
grees of punishment. And worst of all, is that 
they freely invoke Allah as witness and upholder 
of the imprecations. It is a mixture of religion 
and profanity, all learned at home, and the up- 
rooting of the nature and habit takes long and 
patient and loving effort." 

Burton, the Arabian traveller, tells of the lack 
of moral education in Medina and Mecca; how 
parents abuse their children almost as soon as 
they can speak, in order to excite their rage and 
test their dispositions. The children reply with 
coarse language, and lisp blasphemies from in- 
fancy. 

"One urchin, scarcely three years old, told me, 
because I objected to his perching upon my 
wounded foot, that his father had a sword at 
home with which he would cut my throat from 
ear to ear, suiting the action to the word. By a 
few taunts I made the little wretch furious with 
rage; he shook his infant fist at me, and then 
opening his enormous black eyes to their utmost 
stretch, he looked at me, and licked his knee with 
portentous meaning. . . . 

"Then a serious and majestic boy about six 
years old, with an inkstand in his belt, in token 
of his receiving a literary education, seized my 












Q v 

O ri 

d ^ 

pq o> 

H S 

Ph „ 



o 

S-, 
0) 

H 



1 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 173 

pipe and began to smoke it with huge puffs. I 
ventured laughingly to institute a comparison be- 
tween the length of his person and the pipe-stick, 
when he threw it upon the ground, and stared at 
me fixedly with flaming eyes and features dis- 
torted by anger. ' ' 

If it is true, as all teachers of ethics admit, that 
the moral development of a child or his immoral 
tendencies are due most of all to the influence of 
the parents, especially the mother, how sad is the 
lot of the Moslem child! A correspondent from 
Nablous, Palestine, speaks of this neglect, or un- 
trained motherhood, and says : "It is no wonder 
the children have foul minds and fouler tongues. 
It is not shame for a Moslem mother to engage 
in the most filthy and polluting conversation be- 
fore her young children, and when she has taught 
them to curse their own father, she praises them 
for their cleverness." 

Judged by Christian standards, the condition 
of Moslem children nearly everywhere is nocent 
rather than innocent, and ever tends to degrada- 
tion. 

What we call home life is strangely absent. 
Where there is love between the parents and the 
children there is still unhappiness, for, as Dr. 
Cantine of Arabia remarks, ' ' Moslem children are 
unhappy not because of lack of love, but from 
lack of knowledge of what is best for them and lack 



174 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

of wisdom on the part of their parents in using 
what little knowledge they have. ' ' This testimony 
is corroborated by a Swedish missionary in 
Chinese Turkestan, who writes: "The parents, al- 
though they have an intense love for their chil- 
dren, have no idea whatever of bringing them up, 
judged by our Christian standards. They run 
perfectly wild, no attention is paid to cleanliness ; 
they learn all the evil things they see and hear 
in their homes and in the streets, and are ap- 
plauded as being clever when they use bad words. 
It is really a wonder that they are so amenable 
to teaching and rules when they come under our 
influence. ' ' 

The results of this training of childhood can 
best be studied in lands where Islam has had un- 
disputed possession for centuries, where the law 
of cause and effect has operated for generations, 
under different natural and political environ- 
ments and even different races, but where the re- 
sults are so sadly similar that they form a terrible 
and unanswerable indictment against Islam in its 
relation to childhood. In its native Arabian soil, 
for example, the tree planted by the Prophet has 
grown with wild freedom and brought forth fruit 
after its kind. In Morocco and Afghanistan, 
Islam has never been hindered in its development 
by other dominant religions. What we see in 
these lands, therefore, is the fruit of the tree. 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 175 

Doughty tells us that the nomad boys despise their 
mother's voice, and as far as moral training goes, 
they receive none in the early days of childhood. 

"I have known an ill-natured child to lay a 
stick to the back of his good cherishing mother; 
and asked why she suffered this, she answered, 
sighing, 'My child is a kafir,' that is, of a heathen- 
ish, froward nature. Some asking if our children 
too were peevish, when they heard from me the 
old dreadful severity of Moses ' law, they ex- 
claimed, 'But many is the ill-natured lad among 
us that, and he be strong enough, will beat his 
own father. ' . . . There are devout Bedouins full, 
in that religious life of the desert, of natural 
religion, who may somewhiles reprove them; but 
the child is never checked for any lying, although 
the Arabians say 'the lie is shameful.' Their lie 
is an easy stratagem and one's most ready de- 
fence to mislead his enemy. Nature we see to be 
herself most full of all guile, and this lying mouth 
is indulged by the Arabian religion." 

It is sometimes asserted by apologists for Islam 
that its progress among the heathen tribes in 
Africa is a stepping-stone to Christianity. Alas, 
all the testimony is on the other side. "The 
adoption of the faith of Islam by the pagan peo- 
ple of Africa," said the Bishop of Mombasa, "is 
in no sense whatever a stepping-stone towards or 
a preparation for Christianity, but exactly the 



176 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

reverse." (The Moslem World, Vol. I, p. 365.) 
In his book, "The Progress and Arrest of 
Islam in Sumatra," Gottfried Simon deals with 
this whole question and says things that may ap- 
pear severe to those who have only investigated 
the subject superficially, but which are confirmed 
by all students of Islam who live in Moslem lands 
and are not mere armchair critics. "A glance 
at the Mohammedan world, ' ' he says, ' ' shows that 
the level of morality is actually lowest in the old 
Mohammedan countries. . . . Islam does not raise 
the moral ideal of animistic peoples. . . . Just be- 
cause the Bataks, for instance, are so ignorant 
about the Prophet's life, the morality of the Mo- 
hammedan Batak and his married life is on a 
higher plane than that of other Mohammedan 
countries." And again, in regard to the influence 
of the Mecca pilgrimage upon the morals of 
heathenism, he says: "It introduces him to a re- 
finement of vice of which he was hitherto ig- 
norant. . . . The captains of pilgrim boats carry 
not only cholera germs to the ends of the earth; 
they have also shiploads of agents of immorality 
for the heathen world already immoral to the 
core. And this immorality, like everything that 
comes from Mecca, has the Divine sanction, for- 
bidden as such vices may be by the letter of the 
law." 

Similar testimony is given from other lands, 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 177 

especially West Africa. " Islam,' ' says Rev. R. P. 
Dougherty, "does not subvert heathenism in West 
Africa, but uses it as a foundation for its own 
religious structure. The African need not drop 
any of the distinctive habits and customs of his 
animistic cult in order to become a Moslem. 
Polygamy, witchcraft, slavery, and even cannibal- 
ism, may be indulged in as before. In reality, the 
negro puts on the gown of Islam not to get rid 
of his evil practices, nor even to hide them, but 
rather to dignify them, if possible.' ' 

One of the fundamental evils of heathenism, its 
childhood as well as manhood, is untruthfulness. 
Where the home life is full of the spirit of deceit, 
all moral health and stability are destroyed. Yet 
Islam in its moral results, not to speak of its 
moral teaching, does not rise above, nay, scarcely 
as high as, the other non-Christian religions in 
this respect. We do not mean to insinuate, as 
some writers have, that Moslems are to be classed 
with Cretans and that their word is utterly unre- 
liable, but to point out that the widespread habit 
of lying and the low ideas of truth prevalent in 
Moslem lands, and therefore imitated by children, 
are due to the teaching of Islam itself and its 
effect upon those that profess it. Whether Mo- 
hammed should be called the False Prophet par 
eminence may be an open question with many, but 
when we read Moslem theology, study Moham- 



178 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

medan literature, and live among Moslem peo- 
ples, there is no doubt whatever that truth- 
speaking seems to have become a lost art. 

It is true that the Koran again and again 
classes liars with unbelievers and infidels, and 
says that their fate will be eternal fire. But when 
we ask in what a lie really consists, we discover 
that Islam is able to condemn liars as a class and 
yet allows untruthfulness. The Koran, for ex- 
ample, says concerning oaths : ' ' God will not pun- 
ish for an inconsiderate error in your oath, but 
He will punish you for that which your hearts 
have assented to." (Surah 2:225.) Tradition 
interprets this verse by saying, "Whoever swears 
to a thing and says In sha Allah (if it please God) 
commits no sin. ,, On the whole question of the 
nature of an oath, Moslem jurists follow rabbinic 
teaching. If a man swear by the knowledge of 
God, it does not constitute an oath. Abu Hanifa 
goes so far as to allege that if a man swear by the 
truth of God, this does not constitute an oath, and 
in this opinion other jurists coincide. To swear 
on the Koran is one of the most solemn methods 
of securing veracity, and yet it is a well-known 
practice in some Moslem lands for the one who 
takes this oath to place between his thumb and 
the Holy Book the bristle of a hog, and by a 
species of casuistry the oath in this case is null 
and void. Oaths on every occasion, not only in 




w 5 

J o 
O "a 



J2 CO 

O 

o ^ 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 179 

the name of God, but of the Prophet, his word, 
his life, etc., are therefore exceedingly common. 

Turning from the Koran and its teaching to 
that of Moslem theology, we find in Ghazali, the 
greatest of all their theologians and the most au- 
thoritative, the following paragraphs on the ques- 
tion, When lies are justifiable. (Ihya ul-'Ulum, 
Vol. Ill, p. 96.) 

"Know that a lie is not haram (wrong) in itself, 
but only because of the evil conclusions to which 
it leads the hearer, making him believe something 
that is not really the case. Ignorance sometimes 
is an advantage, and if a lie causes this kind of 
ignorance it may be allowed. It is sometimes a 
duty to lie. Maimun ibn Muhran said, 'A lie is 
sometimes better than truth ; for instance, if you 
see a man seeking for another in order to kill 
him, what do you reply to the question as to 
where he is ? Even though you know where he is, 
do you not say, I have not seen him? Of course 
you will reply thus, for such a lie is lawful. We 
say that the end justifies the means.' 

"If lying and truth both lead to a good result, 
you must tell the truth, for a lie is forbidden in 
this case. If a lie is the only way to reach a 
good result, it is allowable (hillal) . A lie is lawful 
when it is the only path to duty. For example, 
if a Moslem flees from an unjust one and you are 
asked about him, you are obliged to lie in order 



180 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

to save him. If the outcome of war, reconcilia- 
tion between two separated friends, or the safety 
of an oppressed person depends on a lie, then a 
lie is allowed. In all cases we must be careful 
not to lie when there is no necessity for it, lest 
it be haram (wrong). If a wicked person asks a 
man about his wealth, he has to deny having any ; 
and so if a sultan asks a man about a crime he 
has committed, he has to deny it and say, 'I have 
not stolen/ when he did steal; 'nor done any 
vice,' which he has done. The Prophet said, 'He 
who has done a shameful deed must conceal it, 
for revealing one disgrace is another disgrace/ 
A person must deny the sins of others as well. 
Making peace between wives is a duty, even by 
pretending to each of them that she is loved the 
most, and by making promises to please her. 

"We must lie when truth leads to unpleasant 
results, but tell the truth when it leads to good 
results. Lying for one's pleasure, or for increase 
of wealth, or for fame, is forbidden. One wife 
must not lie to her husband to tease another wife. 
Lying is allowed in persuading children to go to 
school; also false promises and false threats.' ' 

This kind of teaching is found in the standard 
work on religion, by one who is considered, 
even today, a defender of the faith of Islam. 
One cannot marvel at the result. "According 
to the testimony of a Persian nobleman, 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 181 

' Lying is rotting this country. Persians tell lies 
before they can speak.' The land is said to 
be a hotbed of lies and intrigues. To be called 
a liar in Persia is considered a very mild insult. 
Curzon, in his book on Persia, remarks, 'I am 
convinced that the true son of Iran would sooner 
lie than tell the truth, and that he feels twinges 
of desperate remorse when upon occasions he has 
thoughtlessly strayed into veracity.' " ("Chris- 
tian Missions and Social Progress," p. 101.) 
"Truthfulness," says Budgett Meakin, "is not a 
quality which need be sought for in Morocco, for 
the Moors have no conception of what we under- 
stand by that term. The strongest asseverations 
have to be employed in daily intercourse, and 
few expect to be believed without an oath. ' ' The 
use of the oath, however, in Moslem lands is only 
an indication of the universality of distrust and 
untruthfulness. Little children constantly use the 
name of God or of the Prophet in affirming the 
most commonplace statements; in fact Wallah 
and Aiwa, the two affirmatives so well known 
wherever Arabic is spoken, are both of them oaths 
by the name of God, and they signify no more on 
the lips of children than our English aye or yes. 
Similar testimony as regards untruthfulness 
among young and old comes from all lands. "Is- 
lam, ' ' says Simon, ' i does not denounce the funda- 
mental evil of heathenism, namely untruthful- 



188 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

ness, but actually fosters it. ... A Mohammedan 
teacher in Poboendjoran in Celebes told the Mo- 
hammedan children who wished to attend a Chris- 
tian school : ' If you go to that school, you will be 
hewn in half from your head to your feet when 
you die. The one half which knows how to recite 
the Koran will go to heaven ; the other which has 
gone to school will go to hell!' " An English 
woman who spent eight years in Turkish Arabia, 
says, "You get so tired of always hearing lies 
that you begin to feel it is no use to question peo- 
ple at all. It is a sad fact, too, that the natives 
do not trust or believe each other. A brother will 
cheat a brother, or a son his father.' ' 

One reason for this low standard is undoubt- 
edly the fact that in the creed of Islam precept 
and practice are not supposed to go together, ex- 
cept in the case of the ritual. In this even chil- 
dren are taught to be most punctilious, as we 
shall see when we consider the religious practices 
— prayer, fasting, and so forth. In the children's 
primer published in Cairo, from which I have al- 
ready quoted, many pages are devoted to the 
ritual of washing and the order of prostrations 
in prayer. There is not a single paragraph on 
obedience, purity, or truthfulness. In this primer 
the child is taught that moral actions are divided 
into five classes. This follows the teaching of all 
Moslem law books. First, fard (necessary) : a 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 183 

duty the omission of which is punished, the doing 
rewarded. Secondly, mandub (recommended) : 
the doing is rewarded, but the omission is not 
punished. Thirdly, mubah (permitted) : legally 
indifferent. Fourthly, makruh (disliked) : disap- 
proved by the law, but not under penalty. Fifthly, 
haram (forbidden) : an action punishable by law. 
With all these loopholes for compromise between 
that which is morally right and morally wrong, 
the youthful offender can find a way of escape as 
easily as his elders. What must be the effect 
upon the morals of a child as keen to observe as 
all children are, when they see the utter contra- 
diction between precept and practice? As a Moor 
in Fez said to a traveller: "Do you want to know 
what our religion is! We purify ourselves with 
water while we contemplate adultery; we go to 
the mosque to pray, and as we do so we think 
how best to cheat our neighbors; we give alms 
at the door, and go back to our shops to rob ; we 
read our Korans and go out to commit unmen- 
tionable sins ; we fast and go on pilgrimages, yet 
we lie and kill." 

The ceremonial law in Islam has taken the first 
place in their hearts and minds. It is a much 
greater offence to pray with unwashed hands than 
to tell a lie, and impurity of speech is nothing 
compared with that impurity of lips which fol- 
lows the eating of pork. In the Moslem traditions 



184 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the greatest emphasis is laid upon the outward 
observance of the law, and but seldom is there 
reference to inward purity of heart and holiness. 
Henry Otis D wight in his story of present-day 
conditions, "A Muslim Sir Galahad, " gives an 
interesting instance. The Kurdish Moslems had 
gathered for sunset prayer, and several small 
boys from nine to ten years of age in the crowd 
had joined the prayer line to learn the postures 
and formulas. When prayer was over two of 
them were squabbling as to which had received 
the most merit. 

" Ismail said, 'I did two rounds, and then I lost 
my count.' 

" 'I did three/ said Jemil with all the pride 
of youthful virtue. 

" 'No, you didn't/ said Ismail. 'In the round 
when you bowed you said, "God is most great," 
instead of "Praise God the great One." Besides, 
your back wasn't straight when you said it. You 
ought to have begun again and done it over ; that 
round doesn't count.' 

" 'Your back was all humped up when you 
bowed,' retorted Jemil angrily. 'That doesn't 
count either.' " 

This incident is typical. How often I have 
heard Arabian children dispute concerning the 
details of the ritual, as if they were professors 
of Moslem law and jurisprudence, meanwhile ut- 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 185 

terly ignorant of the real significance of prayer 
and too proud and self-righteous to have con- 
sciousness of sin or the need of a Saviour. The 
Decalogue as interpreted by Jesus Christ in the 
Sermon on the Mount appeals to the moral sense 
of even little children, and when they learn the 
Beatitudes they have before them the highest 
ideals of conduct, but, alas, many of the command- 
ments of the Koran would have to be abrogated 
to give the Sermon on the Mount a place in Mos- 
lem ethics. 

Instead of being persecuted for righteousness' 
sake, the saints in the Moslem calendar have per- 
secuted others. Instead of swearing neither by 
heaven nor by earth, Moslem children read in the 
Koran that God Himself or Mohammed swore by 
everything that is created in heaven above or in 
the earth beneath. Instead of turning the other 
cheek, the Koran tells them to take an eye for an 
eye and a tooth for a tooth. (Surah 5:48.) We 
could thus compare every one of the Command- 
ments in the Decalogue and see how Islam has 
taken a step backward in the interpretation of the 
moral law. According to a curious tradition uni- 
versally accepted, Mohammed was confused both 
as to the number and the character of the Com- 
mandments given to Moses : 

"A Jew came to the Prophet and asked him 
about the nine (sic) wonders which appeared by 



186 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the hand of Moses. The Prophet said, 'Do not 
associate anything with God, do not steal, do not 
commit adultery, do not kill, do not take an in- 
nocent before the king to be killed, do not practise 
magic, do not take interest, do not accuse an in- 
nocent woman of adultery, do not run away in 
battle, and especially for you, Jews, not to 
work on the Sabbath.' ' 

The reverent use of the name of God is omitted 
from this revised version of the Commandments, 
and not only the daily life of the Moslem, but his 
religious books, are full of the vain use of God's 
name and of needless oaths. 

Of the lax interpretation given by Islam in its 
book and by its Prophet to the seventh command- 
ment it is unnecessary to speak here. The exist- 
ence of polygamy, divorce, and slavery, three 
evils so closely intertwined, and the consequent 
degraded position of womanhood, are sufficient 
comment. The tenth commandment would have 
no place in the ethics of Islam, as the principle is 
laid down that sin consists only in the outward 
act and not in the inward inclination. 

It is no wonder that in the earliest "Life of 
Mohammed " published in Europe (Prideaux, 
"La Vie de Mahomet,' ' Amsterdam, 1699), the 
author has a vignette representing the Prophet of 
Arabia trampling upon the two Tables of the Law 
and the Cross, while with the crescent in the one 




3 

a © 

pq ^ 
<J o 

■+J 

& § 

go 






MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 187 

hand and the sword in the other, he is leading an 
army into battle. Raymund Lull, the first mis- 
sionary to Mohammedans, in his able preaching 
and with his thorough knowledge of Moslem 
ethics, used to show how the seven cardinal vir- 
tues were absent in Islam and the seven deadly 
sins glossed over. A careful study of the life of 
Mohammed and of his principles of conduct as 
shown in the Koran, will corroborate rather than 
contradict the opinions thus vigorously expressed. 
And after all, the moral teaching of a child does 
not depend half so much on precept as on ex- 
ample; not that which is forbidden, but that 
which is inculcated will mould the character of 
childhood. Islam lacks the highest ideals. How 
many of what St. Paul calls the fruits of the 
Spirit—love, joy, peace, long- suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, are 
found in the character of Mohammed, or 'Ali, or 
Fatima, or Ayesha? "Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God," and it is the pure 
in heart who are able to show the vision of God 
to others, and to give to childhood moral ideals 
that shall abide for them throughout life. The 
Moslem child from its earliest years is brought 
up in an environment where lips and hearts and 
imaginations are impure ; where the conversation 
and the literature are besmirched with that which 
a young boy or a young girl ought never to know. 



188 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Sex education in Islam has gone mad. As the 
Eev. W. H. T. Gairdner remarked in this con- 
nection: "The incessant sounding of the sexual 
note in the Koran, the Traditions, the canon law, 
and in the poetry, literature, theology, and entire 
system of Islam, tends to make impossible the 
highest individual, family, or social life, and de- 
feats the very ends it appears to have had in 
view. ' ' 

Islam may have all the credit it deserves for its 
lofty teaching as regards monotheism, for its 
hatred of idolatry, for its earnestness in the out- 
ward observance of religious ceremonies, for its 
fanatic devotion and love of conquest, but Islam 
can never have a high place in the realm of ethics. 
Here it can never share honours with Christianity 
nor presume to be her handmaid in the regenera- 
tion of the individual. It has left its ethical stamp 
upon every land where it has been dominant, and 
its record is that of the earth, earthy. In regard 
to ethics Mohammed has been not only the 
prophet but the prophecy of Islam. 

This tainted atmosphere has its effect upon 
childhood, not only morally but even physically. 
Beauty and innocence go together in childhood. 
Many of the bright and beautiful faces shown in 
the illustrations that accompany the text are 
bright and beautiful because they are still free 
from the blight of this religion. Mrs. Hume- 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 189 

Griffith writes that the children of Mosul "lose 
a great deal of their beauty when five or 
six years old. Perhaps it is because their souls 
at that age become tainted with knowledge of 
evil, and this knowledge is reflected on their faces. 
It is heartrending to see pretty little children 
listening open-mouthed to some horrible tale of 
sin and wickedness told by a member of the harim. 
It is true there is beauty behind the veil, but, 
alas! it is beauty tainted with the blackness of 
sin. How can lives be beautiful when the souls 
within are dead? — as dead as sin and sorrow can 
make them. Boys and girls grow up amidst sur- 
roundings which soon soil their souls; the 'inno- 
cency of childhood, ' so dear to the hearts of Eng- 
lish parents, is unknown in a Moslem hariwi." 

The heart of a Moslem girl instead of being full 
of truth and righteousness and purity, of high 
and noble ideals for girlhood and budding woman- 
hood, very early experiences much that is degrad- 
ing and polluting. Her heart becomes, through 
this very process of neglect and immoral train- 
ing, "deceitful above all things and desperately 
wicked.' ' A Swedish missionary in Egypt tells 
of a child who was married at the age of twelve 
and taken by her husband to his village, where 
cruelty and ill-treatment were her fate. When 
her first-born boy died she was divorced and sent 
back to her father. He, being unable to support 



190 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

her, drove a good bargain and married his child, 
not yet sixteen years old, to another man. ' * When 
I met her," writes this lady, "what a strange 
mixture there was in her heart. She was mature, 
sharp, intelligent, and old in all that concerns 
evil, but a child perfectly undeveloped and igno- 
rant in everything relating to purity, truth, and 
nobility. She had no such conceptions. Her soul 
had been robbed of all that makes life worth liv- 
ing.' ' What a life story can be read in the face 
of the little bride from Algeria shown in our 
frontispiece! To those who have lived among 
them, who have loved them, have fathomed the 
depths of their loneliness and friendlessness, to 
those who have looked even for a little while into 
the horror of this great darkness — the darkness 
of Moslem girlhood and womanhood, their cry of 
pain is never again absent. One who spent forty 
years of her life among them wrote that at a 
Communion service she attended in America, 
when the question was asked, "Has any one been 
omitted in the distribution of the bread V 9 she 
seemed to see millions of women rising through- 
out the Moslem world, for whom the Body was 
also broken and the Blood shed, but who had not 
heard of His love nor experienced His peace. 

" Sudden, before my inward, open vision, 
Millions of faees crowded up to view, 
Sad eyes that said, ' For us is no provision; 
Give us your Saviour, too ! ' 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 191 

"Sorrowful women's faces, hungry, yearning, 

Wild with despair, or dark with sin and dread, 
Worn with long weeping for the unreturning, 
Hopeless, uncomforted. 

" ' Give us/ they cry. ' Your cup of consolation 
Never to our outstretching hands is passed; 
We long for the Desire of every nation, 
And oh, we die so fast ! ' " 

There is, however, a brighter side to the pic- 
ture. Educated Moslems, dissatisfied with the 
ethics of Islam as taught by the old-school Mos- 
lems and based on the Traditions, are beginning 
to advocate higher morality, the emancipation of 
womanhood, and the education of childhood. No 
stronger testimony concerning the failure of Mos- 
lem ethics was ever given than by these leaders 
of the new Islam in their advocacy of higher 
standards based upon Christianity. When they 
cannot find these ideals in the Koran, they borrow 
them from the New Testament. 'Ata Husain Bey 
of Cairo has recently written a series of pamphlets 
on the relation of Islam to modern civilization. 
In them he pays high tribute to the ethics of Chris- 
tianity, and although he considers Jesus (Tsa) 
only as a prophet, he says : 

"But the most remarkable thing which our 
Lord Tsa commanded was universal love. He 
did not cease to preach it and proclaim it, so that 
He even said the whole law and the prophets are 
fulfilled in love, and His teaching concerning love 



192 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

was so strong that He commanded men to love 
even their enemies and those that harmed them, 
and this surely is a principle of life higher than 
all other principles, for everything is established 
on love, and in love and through love everything 
revives, and by means of love universal benev- 
olence is completed, for man's love to his brother 
gives him happiness hereafter and in this world. 
. . . All this the well-balanced mind accepts and 
approves of, but the question arises, Is it possible 
for a man to love his enemies and do good to those 
that hate him !" 

One can see from this that the ideals of Christ 
startle the Moslem mind and awaken incredulity. 
In a primer on Moslem ethics, also published in 
Cairo (1909) for the use of schools, by Abdur 
Eahman Ismail, and which has reached the 
seventh edition, we may see the pathetic attempt 
to readjust Moslem ethics to Christian standards 
in every way possible. The author says: "I will 
begin my little book by the famous passage in the 
Koran which sums up the ideal education for a 
boy, namely, the command of Loqman to his son." 
Moslems are not agreed as to who Loqman was, 
some considering him an inspired prophet, others 
a nephew of Abraham, and still others, probably 
more correctly, identifying him with the Greek 
-ZEsop. The passage reads as follows : 

"And when Loqman said to his son while ad- 




~ 



^■Si! 




{■'■- ■■■••'■■' 


fe 




w 


' 


X 


\X:9i%M-0'- 


o 


wi«i 


PQ 




a 


^ : : : mm 


w 


■W«.v^\ 


J 


mm 


o 


;\:,.rai&«fij 


3 



-a} O 

> o 

<5 pq 

H ffl 
O 

a 





t^ 




»o 




»o 




r- 


O 


Ol 


* 


CO 


o 


OS 


J 


-">! 


M 


4H 


fc 


o 


<i 


g 




O 




-X 


h 


S 






Q 


n 


W 


s^ 


J 




J 


F1 


< 


<u 


U 


'ft 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 193 

monishing him, '0 my boy! associate none with 
God, for, verily, such association is a mighty 
wrong.' . . . 

"For we have commended his parents to man; 
his mother bore him with weakness upon weak- 
ness; and his weaning is in two years. . . . 'Be 
thankful to me and to thy parents; for unto me 
shall your journey be. But if they strive with 
thee that thou shouldst associate with me that 
which thou hast no knowledge of, then obey them 
not. But associate with them in the world with 
kindness, and follow the way of him who turns 
repentant unto me; then unto me is your return, 
and I will inform you of that which ye have done ! 

" '0 my son! verily, if there were the weight 
of a grain of mustard seed and it were (hidden) 
in the rock, or in the heaven, or in the earth, God 
would bring it (to light). Verily, God is subtle, 
well beware ! 

" '0 my son! be steadfast in prayer, and bid 
what is reasonable and forbid what is wrong; be 
patient of what befalls thee, verily, that is one 
of the determined affairs. 

" 'And twist not thy cheek proudly, nor walk 
in the land haughtily ; verily, God loves not every 
arrogant boaster: but be moderate in thy walk, 
and lower thy voice ; verily, the most disagreeable 
of voices is the voice of asses ! ' " 

This introduction the author considers the 



194 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

summary and acme of divine teaching for a boy! 
He follows it, however, by several chapters, the 
titles of which, in the absence of any Koran basis 
for the teaching, indicate the desire for a higher 
moral standard: Obedience to parents; Love for 
teachers; Love for one's relatives and friends; 
Patriotism, Philanthropism, Kindness to animals, 
Faithfulness, Modesty, Truth, The Fear of God, 
Diligence. In the chapter on Truthfulness the 
story is told of the lad who cried, "Wolf ! Wolf !" 
when there was no wolf, and the moral is applied : 
It is dangerous to tell lies even in sport. Most 
of the quotations in this primer of ethics are taken 
not from the Koran but from Moslem tradition, 
and the author has evidently had considerable 
difficulty to find a tradition, however obscure, to 
serve as texts for his homilies. In the chapter on 
the Fear of God we read: "Do not forget what 
Mohammed said: 'The fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of wisdom.' " The chapter on Mod- 
esty contains no reference to sexual purity, and 
only deals with the modesty of humility towards 
superiors. 

The fact is, that educated Moslems today look 
outside of their own literature for ethical stand- 
ards. One of the leading Nationalist papers, Es 
Shaab, printed Smiles' book on "Character" as a 
f euilleton in its daily edition. The Moslem press 
of India is doing its best to whitewash the char- 



MORAL TRAINING AND NEGLECT 195 

acter of their Prophet, and to reform the ethics of 
Islam on Christian lines. In this, however, they 
only follow in the footsteps of the converts from 
Christianity to Islam two centuries after the 
Hegira. They also were dissatisfied with the 
ideals of the desert Arabs and therefore, as Pro- 
fessor Goldziher has pointed out, 1 drew a picture 
of Mohammed that should not be inferior to that 
of Christ, by attributing Gospel miracles and 
Gospel sayings, even including portions of the 
Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer, to 
their Prophet. 

One tradition tells that Mohammed, when tor- 
tured and beaten by his people, only wiped the 
blood from his face and said, ' ' God, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do. ' ' The commen- 
tators say that he imitated Noah by using these 
words ! Elsewhere it is related that the Prophet 
said: "If any one suffers, or if his brother suf- 
fers, he should say : ' Our Lord God, Which art in 
heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom 
[here, apparently, the words ' ' come ; Thy will be 
done," are left out] is in heaven and on earth; 
as Thy mercy is in heaven, so show Thy mercy 
on earth; forgive us our debts and our sins. 
Thou art the Lord of the good ; send down mercy 
from Thy mercy and healing from Thy healing 

1 " Hadith and the New Testament." A Chapter from Muhamt' 
medanische Studien, pp. 48. London: S. P. C. K. 



196 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

on this pain, that it may be healed.' " One 
might give other instances, but these are sufficient. 

All these attempts, however, ended in failure as 
regards practical results. The twigs from the 
tree of life, however skilfully and deceitfully en- 
grafted on the wild olive of the desert, never bore 
fruit. The struggle between the old ethics of the 
Koran and the new ethics based on Christianity 
is inevitable. S. Khuda Bukhsh sums up the 
situation very well when he speaks for his co- 
religionists, the educated classes, throughout the 
Moslem world: 

"It would be the merest affectation to contend 
that religious and social systems, bequeathed to 
us thirteen hundred years ago, should now be 
adapted in their entirety without the slightest 
change or alteration. This is exactly the battle- 
field on which for the last fifty years a relentless 
war has been waged in India between the party 
of light and hope, and the party which is wedded 
to the old order of things.' ' 



VI 

THE RELIGION OF A 
MOSLEM CHILD 



"We address ourselves in a slight and inefficient manner to 
our work, when, without discrimination, without acquaintance 
with those systems which hold souls in bondage, which hinder 
them from coming to the light of life, we have but one method 
with them all — one language in which to describe them all — 
one common charge of belonging to the devil upon which to 
arraign them all; instead of recognizing that each province of 
the dark kingdom of error is different from every other; instead 
of seeing that it is not a lie which can ever make anything 
strong, that it is certainly not their lie which has made them 
strong, and enabled them to stand their ground so long, and 
some of them, saddest of all! to win ground for a while from 
Christendom itself; but the truth which that lie caricatures 
and perverts." — Archbishop Trench in " Hulsean Lectures," 1845. 

" Although Mohammed had many noble qualities and was 
prophetically gifted with the inspiration of monotheism, his 
moral character broke down under the stress of temptation. Is 
it not pathetic that such a vast number of the human race are 
looking to him as the sole interpreter of God and as their guide 
for life and death?" — Stephen van Rensselaer Trowbridge. 



VI 

THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 

WE have seen that the strength of Moslem 
education is on its religious rather than 
on its ethical side. Education without 
religion is an anomaly among Moslems. To them 
the fear of Allah is the beginning of education 
as well as of wisdom. The essentials of the Mos- 
lem faith are fixed in children's minds while they 
are still young. Religious zeal is stirred by teach- 
ing the supremacy of Islam. In this way a pride 
of caste is developed, and the effect on the child's 
mind is great beyond calculation. Dr. Jessup 
of Tabriz remarks that from the child's very 
birth "the whole life of the people is religious. 
Islam is recognized in everything, in the bazaars, 
and in conversation, and children grow up in an 
atmosphere permeated by religion." Once a 
Moslem always a Moslem is their expectation, and 
they follow the Jesuit dictum in their method, 
"Give me a child for the first seven years of his 
life, and you can have him afterward. ' ' 

There is no doubt an advantage in this early 
memorizing of the fundamentals of the faith, this 
incessant repetition of their brief creed. On the 

199 



200 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

other hand, it is true that it develops not thought- 
ful faith, but a narrow, intolerant, unthinking 
fanaticism. Professor McNaughton of Smyrna 
testifies that Moslem religious education does not 
produce moral character, and that this is not their 
intention. Religion is rather * ' one of the customs 
of the country which must be observed. It is a 
conspicuous fact that a very large number of 
Moslem young men, when they leave the higher 
schools, are agnostics if not wholly irreligious, 
showing how little the early teaching of the Koran 
and liturgy has affected their char act ers." And 
Mr. Purdon of Tunis adds that in his experience 
"the Moslem system stupefies rather than culti- 
vates the brain and renders it irresponsive to any 
effort that seeks to lead it to appreciate the spirit 
of any text." Lane in his "Modern Egyptians'' 
thus sums up the result in that country: "The 
Moslem child receives lessons of religious pride 
and learns to hate the Christians and all other 
sects but their own, as thoroughly as does the 
Muslim of advanced age." 

We must, however, acknowledge that these 
early impressions, produced partly by imitation 
and partly by the memorizing of religious phrases 
from the Koran, have a lasting effect. The ques- 
tion of the Bible in the public school has never 
been raised in the world of Islam. The only pub- 
lic school that Islam has ever known has been the 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 201 

school of one book for children, namely, the 
Koran. 

Like the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Command- 
ments, or the Lord's Prayer in Christendom, the 
fundamentals of loslem belief and practice are 
the same from lorocco to the Philippines and 
from Constant' 3ple to Cape Town. An intelli- 
gent child in Ca ro, Samarkand, Tabriz, Baghdad, 
and Calcutta would give the same answer to the 
question, What do you believe, and what are the 
pillars of religion! He would say: "I must be- 
lieve in God, in His angels, His books, His 
prophets, in a future life, and in predestination 
of good and evil; and I must, when I grow up, 
bear witness to the faith, rise to prayer, give alms, 
fast in the month of fasting, and go on pilgrimage 
if I can afford it. ' ' 

What the Moslem conception of God is we know 
from their literature, and how their conception 
differs from the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, Palgrave and others have indicated. 
He is a God of power, a tremendous autocrat, the 
pantheism of force. Moslems love to define Him 
and His attributes negatively rather than posi- 
tively. To the mind of a child God must appear 
like an Almighty, Oriental despot. He is merciful 
and compassionate to those that obey Him and 
His Prophet, but He is also the proud, the terrible, 
the avenger who creates hell and fills it with in- 



202 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

fidels. The Koran does not reveal Him as a God 
of little children. Islam is a religion for adult 
men and not for women and children, as the poet 
Alfred Austin wrote at Constantinople : 

" Now vesper brings the sunset hour, 

And where crusading knight once trod, 
Muezzin from his minaret tower 

Proclaims, ' There is no God but God/ 

"Male God who shares His godhead with 
No virgin mother's sacred tear, 
But finds on earth congenial kith 
In weddings of the sword and spear. 

"Male God who on male lust bestows 
The ruddy lip, the rounded limb, 
And promises at battle's close 
Houris — not saint or seraphim." 

Yet the consciousness of this God, of His pres- 
ence and of His power, is deeply impressed upon 
the mind of a child. Not the thought that God 
is One, but that God is must be considered the 
great contribution of Islam religiously. Moslem 
children may be godless in their conduct, but no 
Moslem child is godless in his thought. 

Of the belief in angels, spirits, and demons we 
have already spoken. The world of jinn is very 
close to the life of the Moslem child. For pro- 
tection against the evils of this spirit world noth- 
ing is so efficacious as the Book of God. Whether 
its contents be used as an amulet or as a prayer, 
it is a remedy for every ill and the guide to truth 
and safety. 




J^J J^LYjV'.J,^^ 



6} ^^=> M 6 



.U.Vi 



tLi. 



^> fV'y ^ 



.Je 



J«^~ u-i! 



f Cut j^sjlj ^C 

f yJal^jU» 

>^j>p^v W?> <M <?>> jCJi 

THE CRY OF THE DROWNING 

An Appeal for Education made by the Moslems to their own 
people in Syria. 



'^M 



> *•* >* Us* . ^ 



X * ** 



**> //> »* »** 






•S ft ^^ > tf x 



A>v >* \ >* >s*>* *■ 







<§B»Bil 



>x» >» (/'♦•l/i 



I 



JjTU ujo^^^W J^ ^. 



A PAGE FROM A MOSLEM CHILD 's PRIMER 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 203 

Islam is a book religion, and the little child is 
no less fanatical in its devotion to the Book of 
God, called the Noble Koran, than its elders. All 
Moslems hold most strongly the fact of a revela- 
tion, and this is undoubtedly a great advance on 
many other non-Christian religions. They put 
the highest value possible on the Word of God 
as revealed to men. With jealous care the Koran 
has been guarded, and the book itself has been 
reverenced with almost superstitious awe. The 
Moslem child soon learns that this book must 
never be thrown idly on the ground, nor even 
placed underneath any other volume on the table 
or the shelf. It occupies the highest place of 
honour even in the humblest dwelling, and is gen- 
erally covered with a green leather or green silk 
case to protect it from dust and from ritual im- 
purity. And it is very common, as Bishop Lef roy 
tells us in regard to India, "for the whole book 
to be learnt off by heart in Arabic and that by 
boys of twelve and thirteen years old who do not 
understand a word of its meaning! Imagine an 
English boy being asked to learn by heart — merely 
by sound and without any understanding — the Old 
Testament in Hebrew! I am not of course con- 
cerned now with the fearfully mechanical and in- 
tellectually injurious character of this exercise — 
its inevitable effect in stunting the higher powers 
of the mind and subordinating everything else to 



204 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

a gigantic effort of the memory. This we can all 
understand. But at least the tribute to the dig- 
nity of God's Word stands out clear, and might 
well shame many of us. ,, 

When we consider the contents of the Koran, 
however, this true tribute to their zeal loses some 
of its value. It is a zeal not according to knowl- 
edge. Less than one-fourth of all Moslem chil- 
dren have Arabic as their mother tongue. To the 
rest the Koran means nothing, and to those few 
boys and girls who are able to read the Koran at 
all intelligently, its contents offer very little that 
appeals to the child religiously, or can be grasped 
by their minds and hearts. The illustration, page 
203, is from a Moslem primer for children, and 
these two chapters of the Koran, as well as other 
short chapters, are to be learned by heart. The 
language is so obscure that few adults can under- 
stand its meaning. Here follows the translation : 

The Backbiter. 

"In the name of the merciful and compassionate 

God. 
Woe to every slanderous backbiter, who collects 

wealth and counts it. 
He thinks that his wealth can immortalize him. 
Not so ! he shall be hurled into El Hutamah. 
And what shall make thee understand what El 

Hutamah is ? — the fire of God kindled ; which 

rises above the hearts. 
Verily, it is an archway over them on long-drawn 

columns." 







PICTURE OF NOAH'S ARK 

This was published as a large wall ehromo in colours and ex- 
tensively sold in Cairo. It represents Noah, with the Prophet's 
veil, and his sons. The artist had difficulty in finding room 
for all the animals even with the peacock perched on the 
mast and the serpent with his head through the porthole. 




PICTURE OF THE SACRIFICE OF ISHMAEL BY ABRAHAM 
AND HIS RESCUE 

Moslems believe that it was not Isaac who was to be offered, and 
that an angel brought the ram from the thicket. In com- 
memoration of this event a great Moslem feast is held every 
year, and sacrifices are made not only at Mecca but in 
every part of the Moslem world. 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 205 

The Elephant. 

"In the name of the merciful and compassionate 
God. 

Hast thou not seen what thy Lord did with the 
fellows of the elephant? 

Did He not make their stratagem lead them 
astray, and send down on them birds in flocks, 
to throw down on them stones of baked clay, 
and make them like blades of herbage eaten 
down?" 

The most interesting portions of the Koran and 
of the Traditions are the stories of the Old Testa- 
ment prophets, of Jesus, and of Mohammed. 
These would naturally appeal to a child, but they 
are told so disconnectedly, without order or se- 
quence, and are so fearfully muddled, that the net 
result does not impress us. A Moslem boy, for 
example, able to read, would find the following 
account of Noah and the ark, sometimes illus- 
trated by crude pictures, like the one we repro- 
duce in the text. This picture is printed in col- 
ours at Cairo, and sold on the streets. The 
story of Noah as given in Moslem books is as 
follows : 

"By God's command Nuh had first of all to 
plant the trees necessary for the building of the 
ark, and he planted plane-trees. During the forty 
years that these were growing no children were 
born on earth. Being asked what form the ark 
was to assume, God answered that the upper part 



206 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

and the back were to be like that of a cock and 
the hull also to be like the body of a bird, and that 
it was to have three stories. The dimensions are 
variously given; according to the ' possessors of 
a scripture' it was eighty (sic) ells long, fifty 
broad, and thirty high; according to other state- 
ments the dimensions were six hundred and sixty, 
three hundred and thirty, and thirty-three ells. 
The ark was nailed in the ordinary way, and cov- 
ered with pitch internally and externally; God 
caused a spring of pitch to well forth for this 
special purpose. — On one occasion the disciples 
of Jesus asked their Master to raise a man from 
the dead who would tell them what the ark was 
like. Jesus raised up Sam, the son of Nuh, from 
a piece of earth, and he told them that the ark 
was 1,200 ells long, 600 broad, and had three 
stories, one for quadrupeds, one for birds, and the 
third for human beings. When the accumulation 
of excrement became a nuisance, Nuh seized the 
tail of an elephant and from it was produced a 
pair of swine which devoured the excrement; the 
mice became a plague, so he struck the lion on 
the forehead and a pair of cats came forth from 
its nose and destroyed the mice." 

This story of course is the traditional account 
enlarged from the statements found in the 
Koran. 

It is more important for us to ask what the 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 207 

Moslem boy or girl believes in regard to our 
Saviour Jesus Christ. He is often referred to in 
the Koran, receives high titles, and is considered 
one of the greater prophets, sinless in life and 
exalted to high station in heaven. Yet we must 
add that there is hardly an important fact con- 
cerning the life of our Saviour, His person and 
His work, which is not passed over, perverted, or 
contradicted by the Koran ; especially is this true 
in regard to His Sonship, His deity, and His 
atoning death. Moslem children are very ready, 
when they meet Christians, to repeat some of 
these Koran verses which have for centuries been 
the proof texts against Christians for the truth 
of Islam. "The Messiah, the son of Mary, is only 
a prophet. Prophets before him have passed 
away, and his mother was a confessor ; they both 
used to eat food." Or, in another place: "God 
could not take to Himself any son. The likeness 
of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam. 
He created him from the earth; then He said 'Be !' 
and he was." And in another text: "The Chris- 
tians say that the Messiah is the son of God! 
Such are the sayings in their mouths ! They re- 
semble the saying of the unbelievers of old. God 
curse them ! How they lie ! They take their doc- 
tors and their monks and the Messiah, the son of 
Mary, for Lords rather than God." 
Although the Koran emphatically denies the 



208 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

death of Jesus on the cross, yet in some of the 
Moslem traditions there is an account which in 
some respects resembles that of the Gospels. The 
following is taken from one of the most celebrated 
books on the subject : 

"And they spat upon Him and put thorns upon 
Him; and they erected the wood to crucify Him 
upon it. And when they came to crucify Him 
upon the tree, the earth was darkened, and God 
sent angels, and they descended between them 
and between Jesus; and they cast the likeness 
of Jesus upon him who had betrayed Him, and 
his name was Judas. And they crucified him in 
His stead, and they thought that they crucified 
Jesus. Then God made Jesus to die for three 
hours, and then raised Him up to heaven; and 
this is the meaning of the Koran verse, ' Verily, 
I will cause Thee to die, and raise Thee 
unto Me, and purify Thee above those who dis- 
believe.' " 

Yet none of these stories are in any way pre- 
pared and adapted for the mind of the child. 
There are no religious books for children, no re- 
ligious songs for children, no prayers specially 
prepared for children anywhere in the Moslem 
world. All that Islam has done is to select por- 
tions of the ritual or scraps from the books of 
theology, and compel the children to learn them 
by heart without understanding them. 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 209 

I think, when I read that sweet story of old, 

When Jesus was here among men, 
How He call'd little children as lambs to His fold, 

I wish they had been with Him then. 
I wish that His hands had been placed on their heads, 

That His arm had been thrown around them, 
And that they might have seen His kind look when He said, 

' Let the little ones come unto Me.' " 



It is the women of the household who first 
teach the child unwritten fragments of sacred 
history, distorted still more in their superstitious 
and ignorant minds. It is they, for example, in 
the words of Dr. Dwight, who "explain the 
cleft tail of the swallow as a reminiscence 
of her good deed in warning Adam of the ma- 
licious schemes of the serpent; for the serpent 
in wrath struck at the swallow and missed all but 
the tail which bears the wedge-shaped slash of 
the serpent's jaws to this day; they teach him 
never to burn the wood of the almond tree, for 
Aaron's rod that budded was a branch from the 
almond ; they teach him bits of eschatology ; how 
one must pray for death to come on a Friday, 
when all the people join in worship, since on that 
day the Eecording Angel is too busy with the 
good to question the bad, thus leaving to those 
who need it a loophole of escape from the conse- 
quences of a reckless life ; they teach him to judge 
between the good and the bad before the last day, 
for an old man whose beard grows white at the 



210 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

side first is sure to be a good man, whereas a bad 
man's beard whitens first in the middle.'' 

Whatever conversation there may be with chil- 
dren in regard to religion, we may be sure that 
the Day of Judgment and a description of heaven 
and hell occupies a large place. These doctrines 
were very prominently before the mind of Mo- 
hammed himself. The terrors of that day of days, 
which he called the day of separation, the day of 
reckoning, or simply the Hour, are most graph- 
ically and terribly portrayed. A belief in the fu- 
ture life and in eternal rewards and punishments 
is fundamental to Islam. Among the best-selling 
books in all literary centres are those that deal 
with eschatology, describing with gross literalism 
the character of the resurrection and the physical 
joys of believers and the physical tortures of the 
damned. Parents doubtless tell their children 
something of all this : how the souls of the martyrs 
of the faith remain, after death, in the crops of 
green birds, which eat of the fruit and drink of 
the rivers of Paradise: how the dead are raised 
and stand up for judgment ; of the eight heavens, 
each exceeding the other in glory, gardens of de- 
light with rivers of milk and wine and honey and 
all kinds of fruit. But the Moslem paradise is, 
after all, not a place for children. Its delights, 
as pictured in the Koran, are for the adult. How 
utterly different must be the child's conception of 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 211 

the life beyond to that of the Christian child who 
sings : 

"Around the throne of God in heaven 
Ten thousand children stand; 
Children whose sins are all forgiven s 
A holy, happy brand." 

Of the hell of Islam, the name of which is so 
constantly on the lips even of little children, the 
less said the better. According to the Koran, its 
fuel is men and stones, its drink liquid pus, the 
clothes of its inhabitants burning pitch, and ser- 
pents and scorpions sting their victims eternally. 

We give Islam credit for the almost universal 
belief that hell is not a place for little children. 
Their doctrine of the child's irresponsibility and 
unaccountability until the age of puberty, nat- 
urally leads them to believe that all children are 
saved. Most of the Moslem sects include in this 
hope of salvation the children of unbelievers as 
well. One thing is certain : that Moslem children 
of parents who believe were eternally predestined 
to Paradise. Their fatalism in this particular is 
a ray of hope. One of the most touching incidents 
in the life of Mohammed the prophet is that of 
the death of his little son Ibrahim, scarcely two 
years old. "It is with pure compassion,' ' says 
Marcus Dods, in speaking of this event, "we are 
spectators of the bitter grief and uncontrollable 
sobbings of the strong man, and hear at last, as 



212 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

he puts the little body back into the nurse 's arms, 
his simple pious lamentation, i Ibrahim, Ibra- 
him! if it were not that the promise is faithful 
and the hope of resurrection sure — if it were not 
that this is the way to be trodden by all, and the 
last of us shall join the first — I would grieve for 
thee with a grief deeper even than this.' " 

We turn now to a consideration of the religious 
practices of Islam as far as they concern child- 
hood. The earliest and most general religious act 
of childhood is undoubtedly the repetition of the 
creed, or what is called "bearing witness to God." 
As soon as the Moslem child can lisp it is taught 
the name of the Prophet and the testimony to 
God's unity. The short creed is easily learned 
and often repeated, especially in proud fanaticism 
by Moslem children in the midst of a Christian or 
other non-Moslem environment. In primers and 
books on religion this creed is amplified as follows : 
"I witness that there is no god but God, and 
I witness that Mohammed is His servant and 
apostle. God! pray for our Lord Mohammed 
and for his family, as Thou didst pray for our 
Lord Abraham and his family; God! bless our 
Lord Mohammed and his family, as Thou didst 
bless our Lord Abraham and his family, in the 
two worlds, for Thou art the Praiseworthy and 
the Glorious.' ' 

It is considered a virtue for every one, even 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 213 

children, to repeat the Moslem creed on every oc- 
casion. They hear it not only from the minaret 
five times daily, but it is used as a word of affirma- 
tion, and almost incessantly the name of Moham- 
med the prophet is on the lips of his followers, 
never without the addition of a prayer. 



Moslem parents of the old school will gravely 
inform their children that when God created 
Adam, he was made in the image of the name of 
Mohammed as it was written from all eternity on 
the throne of God, the Arabic letters forming dif- 
ferent members of the body ; and they will go on to 
say that the different postures of the daily prayer 
are in accordance with his other name Ahmed. As 
we have seen, children are supposed to be taught 
these postures of prayer at the age of seven, but 
they imitate their elders when they observe them 
performing the ritual, still earlier. In Afghan- 
istan, Frank A. Martin tells us, a beautiful custom 
is observed. In time of cholera, earthquake, or 
other calamity, parents will collect their children 
on the roofs of the houses, and there teach them 
to sing prayers in unison. "The children, being 
more innocent than their elders, their prayers are 
supposed to be more readily listened to. The 



214 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

roofs of the houses are all close together, and it 
is pleasant to see the groups of children standing 
in lines on the different roofs, and listen to them 
singing the prayers with their clear young 
voices." I have observed a similar custom in 
East Arabia during an eclipse of the sun, for 
which there are special prayers in the Moslem 
ritual. 

When children pray the ritual prayers, they are, 
of course, supposed to follow every detail upon 
which acceptable Moslem prayer depends. Prayer 
is always preceded by purification which consists 
of ablutions and washings against all legal and 
ceremonial impurities. The child very early is 
taught the religious duty of abstersion, or the 
cleaning of one's self with pebbles or water; also 
the partial ablution called wudhu, and the total 
ablution or bathing, both when it is required and 
how it is to be performed. Children of the desert 
learn how to perform ablution, in accordance with 
the custom of the Prophet, with sand. I have seen 
Bedouin children, when the call to prayer was 
given, dismount from the camel, devoutly slip 
down, and after shovelling the sand aside with 
their bare feet, rub some of it on their hands as 
all pious Moslems do, turn their little faces to- 
ward Mecca, and kneel in prayer. Nowhere in the 
Koran or even in the Traditions is there any 
reference to moral purity as a preparation for 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 215 

prayer. Ghazali and other mystics pretend that 
the purification referred to is the inward purifi- 
cation of the heart ; but it is well known that all 
the standard works on the proprieties of prayer 
contain pages of most minute, obscene, and dis- 
gusting explanations as to what constitutes phys- 
ical impurity, and do not allude to purity of the 
soul. 

This teaching, and much more the punctilious- 
ness of their parents and their religious leaders, 
commonly produce a spirit of Pharisaism in the 
heart and mind of a child. Children look upon 
prayer as a religious duty, as a passport to Para- 
dise, as an assurance of salvation; something 
which, if neglected, will bring grave disaster in 
the world to come. Prayer to them is not a privi- 
lege but an obligation. It has been calculated that 
a Moslem who conscientiously performs his de- 
votions, recites the same form of prayer at least 
seventy times daily! The words they use, with 
slight changes, are the following (translation from 
a manual on Moslem prayer published by the Mo- 
hammedans at Woking, England) : 

"Glory to Thee, O Allah! and Thine is the 
praise, and blessed is Thy name and exalted is Thy 
majesty, and there is none to be served besides 
Thee. ... I betake me for refuge to Allah against 
the accursed Satan.' ' 

"In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the 



216 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord 
of the worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful ; Master 
of the time of requital. Thee do we serve and 
Thee do we beseech for help. Guide us in the 
right path, the path of those upon whom Thou 
hast bestowed favours. Not of those upon whom 
wrath is brought down, nor of those who go 
astray. ' ' 

"Say: He — Allah is one, Allah is He of whom 
nothing is independent. He begets not, nor is 
He begotten ; and none is like Him. Glory to my 
Lord the Great.' ' 

These words are beautiful if they are under- 
stood by those that use them. It must be remem- 
bered, however, that prayers throughout prac- 
tically the whole Moslem world are only said in 
Arabic. In a primer on prayer, called "The 
Muslim Guide," and published by the Society for 
the Propagation of Islam (Bareilly, Northwest 
India) in the English language, all the details 
that must be observed for the correct perform- 
ance of this duty are given. One has only to 
glance through this book to realize how utterly 
foreign the Moslem notion of prayer is to the 
Christian idea, — 

"Prayer is the simplest form of speech 
That infant lips can try; 
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach 
The Majesty on high. 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 217 

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh, 
The falling of a tear, 
The upward glancing of an eye, 
When none but God is near." 



"The Muslim Guide' 9 tells us: "Every Muslim 
must pray five times every day, if possible in com- 
pany with others, and should never neglect prayer 
out of idleness. The Prophet said, 'Whoever will 
perform his prayer punctually, that prayer will 
be a light or guidance for him; whoever is not 
punctual in prayer will not receive salvation.' 
The Prophet has ordered every Muslim to instruct 
his children to perform prayer at the age of seven, 
and to punish them for not performing the nimaz 
on their attaining the age of ten years." 

The same idea that prayer is a duty to be forced 
upon children rather than a privilege to be taught 
them, is expressed in exactly the same words in 
the "Manual for Moral Education" used in the 
government schools of Cairo. I quote from the 
twelfth edition, 1911 a.d., page 24. 

"Q. How many prayers are necessary every 
day and night? 

"A. The prayers required from every Moslem 
who is of sound mind and has attained puberty, 
whether he be male or female, are five. Children 
should be commanded to pray when they are 
seven years old and beaten until they do, at 
ten." 



218 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD ' 

In lands that are still nnder Moslem rule, such 
as Afghanistan and Central Arabia, a special 
scourge made of a flat piece of leather or twisted 
thongs is used by the public censor on morals and 
religion for driving men to prayer. This scourge 
is called dirrah or saut. I have witnessed its use 
at Zobeir and in Hassa, Arabia. 

In the religious life of the Moslem child the 
mosque undoubtedly holds a large place. Al- 
though it is in no sense a children's church, and 
no special services are ever held for children, 
it is the centre of religious life and display. The 
mosque is the representation of the glory of Is- 
lam. This is especially true, of course, in the 
great cities, such as Cairo, Constantinople, Bagh- 
dad, Samarkand, Bokhara, Delhi, Lucknow, 
Mecca, etc. In the history of Islam the mosque 
has occupied a place very similar to that of the 
monastery in the Middle Ages. It is at once the 
place of prayer and of seclusion, the school, the 
library, the hospital, and the university. Seated 
on the floors of these great mosques, where often 
hundreds and thousands of students receive re- 
ligious training, one may see side by side grey- 
bearded men and little children. The professors 
who teach occupy the places of honour on a rug 
of sheepskin beside some pillar, and the students 
are grouped around. The law of equality obtains 
in Islam, and the son of the pasha may be seated 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 219 

beside a poor youth scantily dressed in coarse 
cotton. Few, however, are the children that ob- 
tain this church privilege in Islam. Even those 
that do often find the mosque a place of gross 
and immoral temptation rather than the house of 
God. Witness, for example, the testimony of all 
travellers who have visited Mecca x and the con- 
ditions that are known to obtain in the great 
mosques of Cairo, Kerbela, and Constantinople. 
Girls are not usually admitted to the mosque 
schools, but in villages exceptions are made, and 
in some parts of the Moslem world special schools 
for girls are conducted in rooms adjoining the 
mosque. 

Moslems themselves do not agree as to the re- 
sult of this kind of religious training. Justice 
Abdur Eahim in an address to the graduates of 
a Madras school, said : 

" Every Mohammedan child has his ears filled 
with the cry of ' God is great and there is no God 
but God,' the God who to him is the embodiment 
of the highest perfection ; he is taught not to begin 
any work or duty of the day or any undertaking 
of life, great or small, but in the name of 'God' 
the kind, the merciful; he learns to thank the Al- 
mighty whenever his efforts are crowned with 
success and to trust in Him all the more if he 
fails, to bend the knees of devotion every now 

*C. Shouck Hurgronje: "Mekka," Vol. II, p. 11. 



220 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

and then each day; every day he repeats and 
pores with loving reverence over the words of 
the Qur'an, whose divine eloquence has an abid- 
ing place in every Mohammedan's heart; he is 
brought up to find the keenest pleasure in the 
practice of the most rigid self-denial for one 
month in each year, and the practice of charity 
and kindness towards his neighbours is impressed 
upon him as a legal duty and a high spiritual 
privilege. Thus brought up a Mohammedan 
youth can be trusted never to swerve from his 
faith/ ' 

But one of his own countrymen, Mr. S. Khuda 
Bukhsh, a Moslem who was graduated at Oxford, 
in replying to this statement, writes: 

"It is love rather than fear, the forgiving rather 
than the severe, the merciful rather than the cruel 
character of Divinity that we should impress upon 
our children. And this is exactly what we do not 
do. Why not teach them that prayer is accepta- 
ble to God and you should therefore pray ; charity 
pleasing unto Him and you should therefore be 
charitable ; fasting a divine ordinance, for the dis- 
cipline of the body and soul, and therefore you 
should fast; pilgrimage to Mekka an institution 
to draw you nearer unto His prophet, and there- 
fore you should make a pilgrimage? Would not 
this be more appealing to childhood, ' bright as 
truth and frailer than a toy,' than the doctrine 






THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 221 

that for disobedience the punishment is eternal, 
enduring hell-fire? And above all, why not teach 
them the supremest of all religious lessons — the 
lesson that no service of bended knee or of hum- 
bled head is of any avail if the heart is not pure 
and the hand not clean? 

"Then Mr. Abdur Rahim speaks of the un- 
ceasing study of the Qur'an. Yes! children are 
taught the Qur'an. It is almost the first book 
that they read. But how do they read it! It is 
as well that we should be disenchanted and know 
the truth. The land of dreams is so rich, so beau- 
tiful, so new, but alas ! it will not help us in grap- 
pling with our difficulties, in rectifying our de- 
fects. We will not recline in a false security nor 
will we solve the problem by overlooking its dif- 
ficulties. Yes! the Qur'an is taught, but in how 
many well-regulated houses do the boys know suf- 
ficient Arabic to understand the language of God? 
They read the Qur 'an like parrots, without know- 
ing what it means. Its sweetness is wasted on 
the desert air. Is such study likely to have any 
influence over their thought and conduct? I most 
distinctly hold not. I consider the years spent 
over the study of the Qur'an in this fashion as 
years utterly wasted and thrown away. I am 
firmly convinced that so far as a sound, substan- 
tial spiritual teaching is concerned the Moham- 
medan youth has nothing, or next to nothing. ' ' 



222 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

The fast of Eamadhan is absolutely obligatory 
on every Moslem who has reached the age of 
puberty. Very young children, idiots, the sick, 
the aged, and mothers who are nursing children 
are exempted. This recurring period of religious 
fanaticism, of total abstinence from food and 
drink during the daytime, with the extra indul- 
gence in sweetmeats and other luxuries at night, 
doubtless leave a strong impression on the mind 
of the child. The fast begins at the appearance 
of the new moon, and children watch with eager- 
ness for its appearance both at the beginning and 
at the end of the month. For its observance there 
is no qualification necessary, or learning or lei- 
sure, save endurance, and in this virtue Moslem 
women and children learn to excel. For many, 
especially of the poorer classes, the fast is a weary 
burden when it falls in the long days of intense 
heat, and the suffering caused is very severe. Yet 
the great majority of Moslems undergo the suf- 
fering cheerfully. Multitudes feign observing it, 
and are examples of hypocrisy to their children. 
Those that are faithful store up merit which will 
be to their credit in the great Day of Beckoning. 
Miss Constance Williams tells of children in 
Mymensingh, Bengal, who although only seven or 
eight years old refuse to eat at the beginning of 
the fast. Great virtue is gained if little ones ob- 
serve the fast, their mothers say, and the children 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 223 

proudly deny themselves as long as they can. It 
it quite a relief to us when, after the first few 
days, they give in and become natural boys and 
girls again. But every year they fast a little 
longer, until they are able to abstain from food 
throughout all the days of the whole long month. 
At night fasting gives place to feasting. Invita- 
tions are freely given from house to house, and 
considerably more money is spent in food during 
the month of the fast than in any other month 
of the year." 

Her description is typical of conditions every- 
where. During the night it is customary to in- 
dulge in pleasure, feasting, and dinner parties. 
Some of these are of a religious character, but 
while professional readers drone the Koran, re- 
freshments are passed and the children make 
merry with their elders. All sweetmeat sellers 
drive a brisk trade during this season. The 
bazaars are lit up during the night, even in coun- 
try villages, and the child learns what Mohammed 
meant when he said, "God will make the fast 
easy and not a difficulty for you. ' ' So great is the 
merit of fasting during Ramadhan that boys will 
make a boast of the fact that they have almost 
reached manhood because, although only six or 
seven years of age, they already keep the 
fast. 

The fourth pillar of religion — the giving of 



2M CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

alms — has no special relation to childhood, save 
that the children of the poor, the homeless, and 
the wayfarer receive their share of the cheerful 
hospitality and the alms given by rich and poor 
alike in accordance with the teaching of the 
Prophet. Hospitality is a virtue which has ex- 
tended from the tents of Shem to the farthest out- 
reach of the Moslem world, and in this grace the 
Moslems are in many respects an example to 
other races and religions. 

The pilgrimage to Mecca, which is considered 
the last of the great duties, has a twofold rela- 
tion to childhood. It must impress a Moslem 
boy in Zanzibar, or Java, or Yarkand, or Peking, 
to see with what gladness and honour the pilgrims 
from Mecca are welcomed on their return from 
the holy city. They wear the green turban, are 
the heroes of the market-place, and become very 
often fanatical ambassadors of the greatness and 
glory of Islam. Children do not generally make 
the pilgrimage, although in the case of the 
Javanese and the Indians, we are told that hun- 
dreds of boys, and even girls, make the long jour- 
ney to Mecca in the pilgrim ships. 

The other strong influence of this institution 
is to strengthen the esprit de corps, and give some- 
what of a world horizon to the child. Some of 
the Bedouin children accompany the great pil- 
grim caravans that cross the peninsula j others 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 225 

watch the hajj as it starts off from Damascus, 
Suez, Bombay, and other centres. In Cairo the 
great feast day of the year is that on which the 
Mahmal procession starts for Mecca. When this 
annual ceremony takes place all juvenile Cairo 
is on the streets, and every Moslem boy and girl 
is anxious to catch a glimpse of the sacred carpet 
which is to cover the Kaaba at Mecca. 

Of the religious influence of the pilgrimage 
upon the children of Mecca itself, one dreads to 
speak ; nor is Mecca the only great pilgrim centre 
where all that is best and worst in the religion 
of Islam gravitates. Kerbela, Meshed Ali, Jeru- 
salem, Tanta in Egypt, and Kairwan in North 
Africa, also attract tens of thousands every year. 
The children who live in these cities have an ex- 
aggerated idea of the greatness and glory of Is- 
lam, and are distinguished for their fanatic devo- 
tion to their creed and their prophet. Dr. Shedd 
writes from Persia that the Muharram celebra- 
tion, one of the features of Islam among the 
Shiahs, takes hold of the imagination of little 
children who imitate the gruesome and bloody 
ceremonies of this Miracle Play in memory of the 
martyr death of Hussain on the plains of Ker- 
bela. 

Perhaps one of the greatest influences on Mos- 
lem childhood as regards religion is that of saint 
worship, both of the living and of the dead. Dead 



226 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

saints abound everywhere. There is scarcely a 
village in India, in Central Asia, or in North 
Africa that does not have its well or patron saint. 
Perhaps Allah was too far removed from our 
common humanity, and His very remoteness made 
the intercession of saints a necessary part of the 
Moslem religion; or it may be that this feature 
was introduced from Oriental Christianity. In 
any case, the saint's tomb is the place to which 
the mother goes in her need, where she vows so 
many candles to be burned for the health of her 
child, or mourns the death of her first-born. As 
a general rule these saints have only a local 
celebrity. Others are famous throughout a con- 
siderable district. As Professor E. Montet tells 
us in regard to North Africa, where they are 
called marabouts, "Some are such by right of 
birth ; foremost among them are the sherifs, real 
or pretended descendants of Mohammed, but the 
special path to sainthood is by good works, sci- 
entific discoveries (or what passes for such), 
asceticism, withdrawal from the world to a re- 
ligious retreat, mysticism, so-called miraculous 
power, etc. ' ' In regard to Baluchistan, Mr. Dixey 
says: 

"The real worship among all these people con- 
sists in veneration for so-called saints (pirs). 
Near every village and by many a hillside are to 
be seen mud erections over which, tied to sticks, 





Jff' 


-wm*m** 


-.- If ' .1 




4 f, i, %, ■■ ■ ■ 


'...-.. 




' ' ..."." . ' : • . . .' ... 
' - ■ ■- :■' ■ • 
■ . "■ ■ ■■■■■' 






1 

1 f|l|j 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 227 

are various coloured rags, indicating the tomb 
of a holy man, or Said, and before these tombs 
the tribesmen bow in prayer.' ' 

It is the living saint, however, the pir, dervish, 
or marabout, for they go by different names, who 
is also respected or feared by childhood. Many 
of these so-called saints are madmen. They go 
about in tattered garments, with matted hair, and 
are often utterly impure morally and physically. 
Mr. Walter writes : 

"Of mad saints there are many in Kashmir to- 
day. They are held in great respect by both 
Hindus and Mohammedans, who believe them to 
be in possession of the secrets of God, and hence 
invaluable as fortune tellers. In the villages some 
of them go about utterly naked, and their lan- 
guage is unspeakably vile. During my own resi- 
dence in Kashmir for the space of five months I 
saw only one, who was surrounded by a band of 
followers and leering upon the passers-by out of 
eyes the most evil I have ever seen." 

Concerning one of these dervish saints in Mo- 
rocco, Montet says: "He was an old man of 
eighty years, strong and athletic in frame, but 
a total idiot, and to his mental infirmity he owed 
his entire reputation for holiness. Among other 
peculiarities, he had a special predilection for a 
concoction prepared by kneading together bran, 
honey, butter, hair, and earth. Upon this strange 



S£8 CHILDHOOD IX THE MOSLEM WORLD 

mix ture he fed with the liveliest pleasure. 'He 
is a simple creature.' said another dervish as he 
watched him. 'but he is also a saint. He ought 
to be happy since he neither loves nor hates 
any one.' 

Thousands of these mendicants wander about 
the Moslem world. They travel great distances. 
One may see a Baghdad dervish at Samarkand, 
or one of the pirs from the Pan jab surrounded 
by a crowd of urchins in Morocco. They write 
talismans, sell amulets, cast out demons, and ex- 
ercise a superstitious influence generally on ig- 
norant people. Our illustration shows two mara- 
bouts preaching jihad, or religious warfare, to 
the children of Algeria. The photograph was 
taken in Kabylia. 

••To the left/' writes Miss Trotter, "stands 
a tall white figure, with outstretched arm — a trav- 
elling preacher of Islam. And sitting in front, 
looking up at him with eagerness, reverence, as- 
sent on every face, are a score of native boys. 
Instead of being led into the light, they are being 
led into the darkness, with a flicker of a will-o'- 
the-wisp of imitation truth to lure them on. In- 
stead of bread they are being given a stone — a 
scorpion, rather, for bitter poison lies in the mes- 
sage of their teacher, poison against all that we 
hold most dear. The mystery of the Holy In- 
carnation, and the story of the Precious Death of 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 229 

the Son of God, are put before them only as 
heresies to be abjured and trampled on. 

"And it is no fancy picture; it is a statement 
of what is going on throughout the Moslem coun- 
tries. In the one land of Algeria there are well 
over half a million boys between the ages of five 
and fourteen — all shepherdless, all starving in 
soul, but for the inappreciable number in touch 
with the mission stations; and this is only one 
country's tally.' ' 

The whole world of Moslem childhood is grow- 
ing up into manhood or womanhood under the 
shadow of this religion, or passing into the 
shadow of the grave. On the death of a Moslem 
child the same customs are observed throughout 
the whole world of Islam, in as far as they are 
based on that section of the Traditions which deal 
with the burial of the dead. When the angel of 
death has taken the soul of a child, tradition tells 
us that the assistants of the angel wrap it in a 
shroud, with perfume like the smell of musk. 
They carry it to God, Who says : "Write the name 
of my servant, Such an one, the son of Such an 
one, and return him to the earth to his body, 
which is buried; because I created him from the 
dust and will bring him forth again.' ' Then the 
soul is returned into the body. In the case of 
adults, who are responsible for their conduct, the 
two angels of the tomb question the dead. Chil- 



230 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

dren who die before they reach the age of puberty- 
are not subject to this examination. Neverthe- 
less, the fear of these angels of the tomb must 
be real in the mind of any thinking child. When 
a person is on the point of death it is a custom 
to pour sugar and water down his throat, or a 
little Zemzem water from Mecca. This is to facili- 
tate the exit of the vital spark. The sooner the 
funeral rites are performed the better; as the 
Prophet said, "The sooner a man is buried, the 
sooner will he reach heaven.' ' 

In all Moslem countries the washing of the dead 
is considered a religious rite. Generally it is ob- 
served as follows, women being employed in the 
case of girls and men for boys : The body is 
stripped and laid on its back in the proper posi- 
tion toward Mecca; then water is poured over 
it five times, and the body is scrubbed with soapf 
and afterwards with camphor water. The method 
used resembles the ablutions of prayer for the 
living. Every time a pot of water is poured out 
the creed is repeated. The body is then covered 
with a simple shroud of new white cloth. 

In Egypt, Turkey, and the Near East generally, 
the male relations and friends precede the corpse, 
while the female mourners follow behind, usually 
walking, although sometimes riding. There is a 
tradition that no one should precede the corpse, 
as the angels go before. It is considered a very 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 231 

meritorious act to help carry the bier. Coffins 
are not used, but a canopy covered with cloth is 
over the bier. All those who dwell in Moslem 
lands have seen these frequent funeral proces- 
sions sweep swiftly through the streets, the men 
who follow the bier, or in some cases precede it, 
chanting slowly and solemnly the creed: "La- 
ilaha-illa- 'llah — Muhammadu-Rasul- Allah. ' ' Like 
this: 



£ 



g g> 



"EL 



or more rapidly 



m 



n |; n , n |7 n i.| 



The funeral service is not recited in the grave- 
yard, as that place is considered legally impure, 
but in a mosque or some other place near the 
graveyard. The father of the child or the Imam 
repeats the service, which in India is as follows : 
"Some one present calls out: 'Here begin the 
prayers for the dead.' Then those present ar- 
range themselves in three, five, or seven rows op- 
posite the corpse, with their faces towards Mecca. 
The Imam stands in front of the ranks opposite 
the head of the corpse if it be that of a male, or 



232 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the waist if it be that of a female. The whole 

company having taken up the Qiyam, or standing 

position, the Imam recites the Niyah: 'I purpose 

to perform prayers to God for this dead person, 

consisting of four Takbir s.' Then placing his 

hands to the lobes of his ears, he says the first 

Takbir: 

" 'God is great!' 

1 1 Then folding his hands, the right hand placed 
upon the left, below the navel, he recites the 
Subhan: 

" 'Holiness to Thee, God, 
And to Thee be praise, 
Great is Thy Name, 
Great is Thy greatness, 
Great is Thy praise, 
There is no deity but Thee.' 

"Then follows the second Takbir: 
" 'God is great!' 

"Then the Du'a: '0 God, have mercy on Mo- 
hammed and upon his descendants, as Thou didst 
bestow mercy, and peace and blessing and com- 
passion and great kindness upon Abraham and 
upon his descendants. 

" 'Thou art praised, and Thou art great/ 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 233 

" '0 God, bless Mohammed and his descendants, 
as Thou didst bless and didst have compassion 
and great kindness upon Abraham and upon his 
descendants. ' 

"Then follows the third Takbir: 

" 'God is great!' 

After which the following prayer (Du'a) is re- 
cited : 

" '0 God, forgive our living and our dead and 
those of us who are present, and those who are 
absent, and our children, and our full-grown per- 
sons, our men and our women. God, those 
whom Thou dost keep alive amongst us, keep 
alive in Islam, and those whom Thou causest to 
die, let them die in the Faith. ' 

i i The fourth Takbir follows : 

" 'God is great!' 

i t Turning the head round to the right, he says : 

" 'Peace and mercy be to Thee/ 

"Turning the head round to the left, he says: 

" 'Peace and mercy be to Thee/ " 

With slight variations this same order is ob- 
served in other Moslem lands. Among the 
nomads, the funerals resemble those of the town, 



234 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

only they are more simple. The body, after ablu- 
tion, is shrouded in any rags that are procura- 
ble. A hole is dug in the sand and dried weeds 
or stones are disposed over the body in the shallow 
grave to keep out jackals and help denote the 
spot. Doughty tells how "some of the Bedouins 
scrape out painfully, with a stick or their own 
hands in the hard burned soil of the desert, a shal- 
low grave. The feet of the dead are laid toward 
Mecca, and over the pitiful form of earth there 
may be a few stones to assure the human clay ; yet 
I have seen other graves in the desert mined by 
hyenas, and the winding sheets lay half above 
the ground.' ' The position Doughty gives for the 
body must be an oversight by one who is gen- 
erally so accurate. The proper posture for the 
burial of the dead is to have them face Mecca, 
with the body at right angles to the meridian of 
the kibla. 

If one had the vision of the angels and the ages, 
we might therefore see great concentric circles, 
ever widening, of those who have fallen asleep, 
their only hope Mohammed; millions upon mil- 
lions with their faces toward Mecca, and more 
than half of them the bodies of little children. 
The Moslem mother who weeps over the body of 
her first-born, wails as one who can never be com- 
forted. To understand what Islam means one 
must visit the house of mourning. Only there do 




A GIRL FROM TUNIS 



THE RELIGION OF A MOSLEM CHILD 

we see the utter difference between the life of him 
whom they honour as their prophet and their 
lord, and Him Who is the resurrection and the 
life and Who hath brought life and immortality 
to light in the Gospel. Miss Watling of Algiers 
pictures for us the weird dance for the dead, but 
who can portray the sorrow which this hopeless 
mourning represents. 

' ' Below me, framed in the fawn-coloured walls, 
was a dull group of some twenty women and girls. 
Up and down the wild things jerked uncouthly 
in time to their song, beating and tearing, or pre- 
tending to, with their nails, their faces and bared 
breasts. 

"The outermost circle was fairly calm, almost 
smiling, and the tearing merely a pretence, a com- 
pliment, a marking time. But in the centre was 
a thing more beast than human. It called itself 
woman, but the wild eyes and mad smile above 
the half -naked body belied the name. On, on, she 
jumped, higher and higher as she led the chant, 
turning meanwhile to every point of the com- 
pass. . . . 

"For hours and hours the mourners continued, 
dropping down, exhausted, for a few seconds, only 
to leap up more frenzied than ever. The dark 
blue garments waved in the hot wind, bare limbs 
tossed, long plaits of coarse, ill-kempt hair flew 
up and down at each bound. 



236 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

" First one relation and then another took up 
the cry of loving diminutives : 

" 'Oh, my little brother! 
Oh, my little son! 
Oh, my little uncle! 
Come all of you; 
Oh, my little heart! 9 etc., 

till sick and sad we turned away, sorer than ever 
over these Christless deaths, and over the barren 
consolation Islam offers to stricken hearts." 



VII 

THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 



" To stand between two religions, from one of which you have not 
as yet emerged, and another into which you have not yet entered, 
is intolerable; and twilight is pleasing only to bat-like souls." — 
Victor Hugo— "Les Miserables." 

" European civilization destroys one religion without substitut- 
ing another in its place. It requires to be seen whether the code of 
Christian morality on which European civilization is based, can 
be dissociated from the teaching of the Christian religion." — 
Lord Cbomee — "Modern Egypt." 

" It is a terrible thing to take away a boy's faith, even if 
it be a faith in a mistaken creed, and I think the man who has 
argued or bantered a young fellow out of his faith without 
bringing him to a higher faith, has incurred a great responsi- 
bility."— T. L. Pennell in " The Afghan Frontier." 



VII 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND CHRIS- 
TIAN MISSIONS 

THE old coat of arms of Tiflis, that great 
Moslem centre in the Caucasus, is a staff of 
wood held by two hands. The cross is on 
the upper end, while below is the half moon. One 
hand holds the cross upright, and the other is 
endeavouring to uplift the half moon. This coat 
of arms, if it were reversed, would be typical of 
the situation in most Moslem lands. Two forces 
are operating on the world of childhood which 
has passed before us in the preceding chapters. 
Both are disintegrating forces, and at the same 
time formative. In some lands they have been 
active for many decades, in others more recently, 
and in some they have scarcely been felt. These 
two forces are Western civilization, with its good 
and evil, and Christian missions. 

The advent of a railway station, a flour-mill, 
or even a wheeled carriage, has been a red-letter 
day to the children of many Moslem lands. What 
must it have meant to the children of Medina 
when for the first time they saw the big iron 

239 



240 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

monster puffing on the rails, bringing a load of 
pilgrims from f ar-ofl Damascus ! How the boys 
and girls of the Pirate Coast in Oman gazed with 
wonder when they saw the first smoke-ship enter 
their harbours ! Not less wonderful, often equally 
unexpected, and generally less welcome, was the 
coming of the missionary. The opening of the 
first hospital, or of a day school with blackboards, 
pictures, and books, the music of an organ, the 
scenes from the life of Christ shown by stereopti- 
con, — all these have stirred the dull monotony of 
Moslem child life in many lands and among many 
nations in a way which only those can realize 
who have themselves observed it. 

The Moslem world has been penetrated by 
travellers to its inmost recesses. Mecca and 
Medina, as well as Kerbela and Meshed Ali, have 
laid bare their secrets. "Arabia," writes Dr. 
James Cantine, "is being influenced as never be- 
fore by the forces of commerce and trade. The 
Twentieth Century, with rail and steamer, is 
piercing and crossing the last remaining banks 
and bars; and soon Arabia, that great eddy in 
the stream of the world's progress, will find itself 
being carried rapidly along to the consummation 
of God's purpose. In northeastern Arabia the 
most superficial observer can easily note the 
growth during the last few years. The great 
irrigation schemes, inaugurated in the Mesopo- 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 241 

tamian valley, the linking up by rail of the Persian 
Gulf with the Mediterranean, the Bosphorus, and 
the Black Sea, the decided increase in size and 
number of the ocean steamers making Busrah 
their terminus, the immense oil fields on its bor- 
der already being exploited by modern methods 
and capital — all these were but nebulous hopes a 
decade ago, and make us wonder what is in store 
for the great regions still unexplored. 

"Socially the forces at work are those acting 
in all the world. We have here only space to note 
the growing tendency to approve and, without 
doubt, soon to use customs of distinctively Chris- 
tian origin. Monogamy, equality of the sexes, 
schools for girls, and various so-called hand- 
maids of Christianity, are beginning to be pressed 
into the service of Islam. Many of us think that 
it will result in a house divided against itself, but 
time only will tell. ' ' 

Since these lines were written Great Britain 
has occupied Busrah, and is about to make the 
Euphrates-Tigris valley another Egypt under 
some new Lord Cromer. 

Tripoli has seen more changes in the last five 
years than in the previous two hundred years. 
Whether we consider Italy's action brigandage 
on a national scale or legitimate colonial expan- 
sion, the fact remains that they have already 
established good communications, roads, tele- 



242 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

graphs, railways, motor services; they are pre- 
paring the people for taking a share in their own 
development by instituting good technical col- 
leges; they have improved the water supply and 
the drainage, and by these means and the good 
hospitals and medical service which they have in- 
troduced, they have already done much towards 
stamping out, or, at any rate, reducing certain 
diseases which have devastated the Arabs. 

The editor of the Mussalman, Calcutta, in 
speaking of the entrance of Russia and Great Brit- 
ain into Persia, said that the loss of Persia would 
be a great calamity to the Moslem world. " Af- 
ghanistan would be exposed to foreign invasion, 
Arabia and the regions west of Persia would be 
similarly exposed; thus the one loss may be the 
forerunner of many other great losses and the 
cause of utter annihilation of the Islamic civiliza- 
tion." (1912.) His word is finding fulfilment 
even as we write these lines, and it is doubtful 
whether after the great European war, any Mos- 
lem land will retain nominal independence. 

In addition to this political upheaval and par- 
allel with it, a remarkable modernist movement 
has arisen and is gaining strength in Moham- 
medan lands all the way from Morocco to China. 
The introduction of Western customs, the multi- 
plication of machinery and other devices of West- 
ern civilization, the increase of educational op- 







■-■-- 



;;....^ r 




A YOUNG EDUCATED JAVANESE 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 243 

portunity, and especially the rise and enormous 
expansion of the Moslem press, have utterly 
changed many old standards and developed new 
social and intellectual ideals. In some parts of 
the Moslem world the children are born into a 
new environment in which the best and the worst 
of our Western civilization are in conflict with 
the best and the worst of Moslem civilization. 
European fashions in dress are being copied, and 
sometimes the results are unexpected. Miss 
Stocking writes from Persia, for example : 

"It is to be regretted that many girls are 
abandoning the dainty white head-kerchief, so pic- 
turesque and universally becoming. But without 
this kerchief it is necessary to dress the hair more 
neatly, and for this reason many girls are wear- 
ing their hair in one braid instead of in nine or 
eleven tiny braids. Hair worn in one braid can 
be combed every day, whereas once or twice a 
month was considered sufficient for the old 
style." 

Moslem boys in Turkey, Algeria, and Java are 
gradually abandoning their national dress and 
adopting that of Europeans. Our photograph of 
the young hopeful from Batavia, with his semi- 
European garb and the daily paper by his side, 
is an illustration in point. The question of cere- 
monial washing before prayer is greatly compli- 
cated when children and grown-ups use Western 



244 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

footgear, and when watches and almanacs keep 
Western time, even children begin to ask what is 
the significance of a.d. 1915. 

The Arabic Koran is being translated by Mos- 
lems themselves into other tongues. The Mo- 
hammedans of India, for example, have recently 
published an English translation for the use of 
schools (Allahabad, 1911). Translations have 
also been made into Urdu, Turkish, Javanese, and 
by missionaries, into Bengali. Newspapers pub- 
lished at the great centres, such as Calcutta, Bom- 
bay, Constantinople, and Cairo, carry the news 
of the day into every corner of the world. More 
than two hundred papers and magazines were pub- 
lished in Persia after the proclamation of the 
constitution. Cairo has more daily newspapers 
than either London or New York, but of course 
many of them have a very limited circula- 
tion. 

The desire for education has become universal 
among all the better-class Mohammedans. Egypt 
as a nation is struggling with might and main to 
get out of the depths of illiteracy. Under the 
inspiration of Great Britain, and following the 
leadership of American mission schools, educa- 
tion is making rapid progress, as the following 
table shows. The huttab referred to is the pri- 
mary Moslem school. We see from the statistics 
given that the number of boys and girls attending 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST Mo 

government schools in Egypt increased over four 
hundred per cent in twenty-one years. 

1890 1911 

In Government kuttabs . 1,961 13,169 

In institutions for training teach- 
ers for kuttabs 2,713 

In higher primary schools 2,749 5,761 

In technical schools and colleges. 393 1,644 

In secondary schools 734 2,160 

In professional colleges 382 1,351 

Studying abroad (Egyptian Edu- 
cation Mission) 56 

6,219 26,854 

What Dr. Pennell wrote in regard to North 
India is true, generally speaking, of all those 
countries where European governments are estab- 
lishing a school system. " There are four atti- 
tudes towards educational work; that of the peo- 
ple at large, who desire learning, not usually for 
learning's sake, but because that is the portal of 
government preferment and commercial success; 
that of the priests and religious-conservative ele- 
ment, who oppose it tooth and nail as subversive 
of the old religious ideas and priestly power ; that 
of the missionary, who finds therein his vantage 
ground for familiarizing the intelligent and in- 
fluential section of the people with the doctrines 
and ideals of the Christian religion ; and that of 



246 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

the Government, which, indifferent alike to the 
motives of the missionary and the opposition of 
the mullahs, requires educated young men for ad- 
ministrative posts, and believes that education 
eclipses fanaticism. ' ' 

In Persia and Turkey there is a growing inter- 
est in the education of girls, and women them- 
selves are voicing the plea for higher education. 
In an article published in the Turkish daily Ikdam 
we read: "What has our government done for the 
training of our girls, I wonder? Let me call at- 
tention to the following figures, which I have 
taken from the statistics published by the Min- 
istry of Public Instruction concerning all the of- 
ficial and unofficial schools in our country. For 
girls there is 1 normal training school; over 
against this there are 32 normal training schools 
for boys. There is 1 high school for girls ; while 
for boys there are 12 lyceums, 6 Stamboul high 
schools, 9 seven-year high boarding schools, 2 
seven-year high schools for day pupils, 9 five-year 
high boarding schools, and 72 five-year high 
day schools; in other words, 1 high school for 
girls as against 110 for boys. Coming to the 
grammar schools, there are 45 for girls and 148 
for boys; of primary schools there are 216 for 
girls alone, 2,561 for boys alone, and 2,388 mixed. 
Do not these figures show that woman is regarded 
as a very secondary, negligible, and useless class 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 247 

of humanity, for whom knowledge is not very 
preferable to ignorance V 

At one time the Dutch government in Java im- 
peded the efforts of the missionaries to enlighten 
and develop the native mind by education, but 
now Holland is endeavouring to atone for the 
past. Normal training schools have been opened, 
and so eager are the Javanese for education that, 
Mr. Cabaton tells us, "in school, thanks to his 
precocity, the native Javanese often outstrips Eu- 
ropean children of his own age, and in many cases 
is able to maintain this superiority for years." 

In 1910 Dutch India had 6 normal schools, with 
42 teachers and 538 pupils. The elementary 
schools for natives were, for Java and Madura, 
in 1910, 613 government schools with 126,550 pu- 
pils, and 549 private schools with 58,668 pupils. 
In the outposts in 1909, 395 government schools 
with 64,231 pupils, and 1,436 private schools with 
83,871 pupils. Besides, there were 7 schools for 
sons of native chiefs with 541 pupils, and 3 
trades-schools with 277 pupils. In 1910 the gov- 
ernment spent 5,393,417 guilders for the educa- 
tion of natives. 

Moslem educational conferences are the order 
of the day in India, and the problem of Moslem 
childhood, in its ignorance and illiteracy, is being 
grappled with by some of the educated leaders 
themselves. At such a conference, held in Delhi 



248 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

in 1911, Her Highness the Begum of Bhopal made 
a strong plea for the education of Moslem girls, 
saying: "It is evident that those who are girls 
to-day will be mothers of future generations, and 
it is they who will have to train the whole com- 
munity. How sad is, therefore, the fact that their 
education is in such a backward condition. On 
behalf of my sex I fully acknowledge the efforts 
which have so far been made by you gentlemen 
in promoting the cause of female education, but 
at the same time I must say that those whom you 
wish to advance are very weak and that the goal 
is still far distant, and the need of help and ear- 
nest endeavours is most urgent. The history of 
our community, as well as daily experience, fully 
proves that it is the neglect and want of due 
attention of men which are responsible for the 
ignorance of women, which has done much more 
harm to men than to women." One of the lead- 
ers in the Persian Parliament said to Dr. Es- 
selstyn: "There is nothing more important for 
the future welfare of Persia than the education 
of our girls. The hope of our country is their 
education, and we shall never have statesmen till 
the mothers are educated.' ' In Constantinople 
Moslem womanhood now has its illustrated jour- 
nal called the Women's World and published 
weekly. Recently this paper contained the fol- 
lowing plea for liberty and higher ideals : 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 249 

"Everybody knows how very far from any 
worthy ideal of what family life ought to be our 
social life has been. The young bride's fond 
hopes, her bright dreams of what her future is to 
be, how soon and how rudely have they often been 
shattered. She has soon discovered how hopeless 
was her slavery, or, if that is better, that she was 
but her husband's toy, to be thrown aside as soon 
as the toy no longer pleases. . . . The fault is not 
in our stars but in ourselves, if we fail of attain- 
ing true happiness. Our men are seeing more 
clearly to-day than ever before that the welfare 
and success of our people in the coming years 
depend very greatly upon us, the mothers and the 
daughters of our race." 

In their new ideals of education these Moslem 
leaders who have received a Western training 
themselves are sometimes honest enough to admit 
that the pioneers of modern education throughout 
the whole Moslem world have been, not the gov- 
ernments, but the missionaries. At the All India 
Moslem Educational Conference, held at Lucknow 
in 1912, Major Bilgrami made a remarkable ad- 
dress, at the conclusion of which he said: "I have 
always appreciated the labours of missionaries 
in the line of education in India; from the days 
of Carey and Marshman they have taken the lead 
in education and in elevating the people. And 
it is to be noted that their education has not been 



250 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

divorced from moral teaching. The quality of 
their teaching has been of a very high order and 
foremost throughout the world. And in this 
matter I would say that the Americans have led 
the way. One of the finest institutions for educa- 
tion in the world is the Syrian Protestant College 
at Beirut/' 

In all these efforts, however, for primary and 
higher education we must not forget that educa- 
tion without moral training is not an unmixed 
blessing, and that it remains to be seen whether 
Christian morals on which, as Lord Cromer re- 
minds us, European civilization is based, can be 
dissociated from the teaching of the religion of 
Jesus Christ. The Moslem schoolboy must not 
only be taught his alphabet, but he must learn 
to play games instead of sitting idle, and to play 
without cheating, without jealousy, or bad feel- 
ing. He must learn the dignity of labour and the 
sin of idleness. The result of government educa- 
tion is the secularization of life, and as the Mos- 
lem world has always been religious to the core, 
learning and religion have gone hand in hand. To 
divorce them will destroy all moral stability. The 
following incident related of the Bannu Mission 
School (India) shows that education can be given 
without destroying faith: "Once, at a cricket- 
match with a rival school, when the issue of the 
game was hanging in the balance, and depended 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 251 

on the last man, who had just gone in, making 
four runs, a Muhammadan Afghan, one of the 
eleven, retired to a corner of the field and re- 
peated the Lord's Prayer, closing with a petition 
for the victory of the school, and returned to find 
the winning run just made!" 

In nearly every part of the Moslem world, es- 
pecially in those lands which have been consid- 
ered the most remote or fanatic, Christian mis- 
sionaries have been the pioneers of primary edu- 
cation, and have begun this work under terrific 
opposition on the part of Moslem leaders and the 
age-long prejudice of the people against Chris- 
tianity and its messengers. It is evident from all 
the reports which we have received that even 
where missionary organizations exist and are 
carrying on work in Moslem lands, the Moslem 
population (and this includes the children) are 
difficult of access. In Tunisia, we are told, Mos- 
lem children are hardly accessible at all, the par- 
ents being very careful to keep them away from 
the Christian missionary, and that French law 
forbids interference with the Moslem religion. 
From Turkey and Arabia the missionaries write 
that there is the greatest difficulty in getting Mos- 
lem children to attend Christian schools, and that 
the children are prevented from associating with 
mission workers. 

The intolerant spirit of Islam is a great barrier 



252 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

between the Moslem child and those who desire 
to help him. Kindness is frequently interpreted 
as arising from fear, and Moslem children, as 
well as their parents, are so apt to consider Chris- 
tians their inferiors in every way. This inaccessi- 
bility seems to apply especially to the girls. From 
India, North Africa, and Arabia we have reports 
that are discouraging in their unanimity. " Girls 
seem to be practically inaccessible in this dis- 
trict/ ' Among the upper classes they are shut 
in, and among both rich and poor early marriage 
is a bar to religious as well as to secular educa- 
tion. In Malaysia and the Malay peninsula, as 
well as in India and Egypt, children are more ac- 
cessible, and we might sum up these apparently 
conflicting testimonies in the statement of Dr. 
Young of Aden, that "Moslem children are com- 
pletely accessible for ordinary intercourse, but 
whenever one begins to teach Christianity, a bar- 
rier is raised by parents or teachers and the child 
is removed." Nevertheless there are indications 
everywhere that this spirit of opposition and 
fanaticism is waning, and the work already ac- 
complished for Moslem childhood by Christian 
missions measures large, both as to quantity and 
quality, in every way. When Kipling wrote his 
famous lines regarding the founding of Gordon 
College at Khartoum, 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 253 

They terribly carpet the earth with dead, and before their 

cannon cool 
They walk unarmed by twos and threes to call the living to 

school." 



he did not consider it worth while, as some one 
remarked, to say that Kitchener's army (which 
did the "carpeting") marched past more than a 
hundred mission schools from Alexandria south 
to the junction of the Blue and White Nile. Mis- 
sionaries have never strewn Egypt with the dead, 
but they have called more children to school than 
Lord Cromer did in his period of administration. 
In Persia higher education dates from the ar- 
rival of the American Presbyterian missionaries, 
when Urumia College was started in a cellar in 
1836, and Fiske Seminary there is still the leading 
school for girls in the whole of Persia. The 
American School for Boys, Teheran, Eobert Col- 
lege, the Syrian Protestant College, Central Tur- 
key College at Aintab, Euphrates College at 
Harpoot, Anatolia College at Marsovan, St. 
Paul's Institute at Tarsus, the International Col- 
lege at Smyrna, and Assiut College in Egypt, have 
trained the leaders of the Nearer East. WTiat 
Moslem childhood owes already, directly and in- 
directly, to these institutions can never be meas- 
ured by statistics, and can only be estimated in 
terms of dynamics. In the Boys' School in Urumia 
in 1908, of 77 names enrolled, 63 were Moslems. 



254 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

In an enrollment of 236 at Teheran, 130 were Mos- 
lems, and the proportion as well as the numbers 
have increased. One father who brought his 
black-eyed little lad in long coat and high hat to 
place in charge of the missionary at the school 
said, "He is yours. I give you his skin and flesh 
and retain his bones for myself." From two 
seminaries for girls, one at Beirut and the other 
at Sidon, 350 young women have already gone out 
to teach childhood in the schools of Syria, Pales- 
tine, and Egypt. Dr. James L. Barton in his book 
on Educational Missions mentions no less than 
thirty-six institutions of higher learning in Mos- 
lem lands. Each of them is exerting an uplifting 
influence upon an ever-widening area of Moslem 
childhood, and all of them were founded by mis- 
sionaries. 

It is an old saying that the hope of the future 
is in the children of today. This truth cannot be 
over-emphasized when we think of the possibil- 
ities, as well as of what has already been accom- 
plished by Christian missions. To-day we see 
girls and boys seated at their desks laboriously 
making long crooked rows of letters, but in a few 
years these same children will have left the school 
with new ideas indelibly stamped upon their 
minds, and new ideals upon their hearts. "In a 
country," writes Mrs. John Van Ess of Arabia, 
"where the few schools which are to be found 




GIRLS ' MISSION SCHOOL, MOGADOR, MOROCCO 




SCHOOL FOR MOSLEM GIRLS 

Conducted by the Swedish missionaries at Port Said. 125 Moslem 

girls enrolled. 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 255 

are a travesty on the word education, even the 
most unpretentious of American schools seem to 
the native by contrast a marvel of efficiency, 
equipment, and astounding results." Even 
greater is the contrast when we consider the 
schools for handicraft and technical training, 
where Moslem children are taught domestic sci- 
ence, carpet-weaving, carpentry, and other useful 
branches. How utterly different is the environ- 
ment and the opportunity for the Moslem girls 
who are weaving carpets under missionary direc- 
tion in Turkey, as we see them in our picture, from 
that of the underfed, ill-housed, ignorant children 
of Kirman of whom we read in Chapter III. 
The bright faces of the girls in the mission school 
at Mogador, Morocco, are no less an evidence of 
the new era for Moslem womanhood than are the 
specimens of their work in drawing and modelling 
which the picture puts before us. 

The uplift of Moslem childhood seems to be 
possible everywhere, and prayer and pains accom- 
plish marvels. From among the lowest classes in 
Port Said the Swedish Mission, as a result of 
three years' effort, has enrolled 125 Moslem 
girls, and the reward of this work of faith and 
labour of love and patience of hope is evident at 
a glance, in the faces of these transformed and 
happy children. These great things, however, are 
greatly won, and not found by chance nor wafted 



256 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

on the breath of summer dream. Mr. H. P. El- 
son, who founded the Raymund Lull Home for 
Moslem boys at Tangier, Morocco, writes : 

"I could not begin to tell you of all the diffi- 
culties and obstacles in the way of missionaries 
working among children here in past years, nor 
of the heartaches, disappointments, and discour- 
agements which have been their portion. But I 
can testify that God is faithful, and we thank Him 
for all, even the heartaches and difficulties, for 
they have taught us to realize how useless are all 
human agencies in doing service for God and how 
potent and availing are the agencies of prayer 
and faith in Christ. 'He shall prevail,' and Mo- 
hammedan darkness must give way before 
Him. 

"For nine years we have been working among 
children and in the face of great opposition. 
What has been accomplished has been through 
prayer; inch by inch the ground has been taken. 
We began by taking one boy, and now have 
twenty-seven in our home. The number varies 
between twenty-five and thirty-five. Some of our 
boys are now in good situations and people are 
beginning to see the benefit of the work. Our 
chief aim is to bring them to Christ." 

A lad from the Riff Country who was in this 
Home to learn the printing trade was too restless 
to remain long. He joined the French army 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 257 

eventually and was sent to the front. Afterwards 
he wrote from the military hospital: "I have not 
forgotten what I learned; only the Lord Jesus 
can cleanse my heart from sin, I now believe in 
Him." 

Education apart from religion is not sufficient 
to save the child. The only hope for the non- 
Christian childhood of the world, therefore, is to 
bring Christ to them and so lead them to Christ. 
Even more than the Moslem woman and her 
home, the little child needs the friendship of Jesus 
our Lord and the inspiration of His pure and holy 
life. Contact with this Life produces new life. 
Every mission station in the world of Islam can 
offer evidence of the transforming and transfig- 
uring power of the Gospel. It has proved trium- 
phant over the stern laws of heredity, and is able 
to produce a new environment and change char- 
acter. When Moslem children receive Him, He 
gives them the right to become the children of 
God. The most unpromising material is not hope- 
less. Some African boys, carried in an Arab slave 
dhow to Muscat, who received unexpected liberty 
from the British Government and unstinted love 
from my brother afford a good example. Dr. 
Eobert E. Speer will tell the story for us. 

"Six years ago (1897) I stopped from a British 
India steamer at Muscat to visit Peter Zwemer, 
who was working there alone, the signs of fever 



258 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

plain upon his face so that any man might read, 
but abiding still by his work. He took us up to 
the house where he was living, and into the room 
where he said his family would be found. There, 
sitting on little benches around the room, were 
eighteen little black boys. They had been rescued 
from a slave ship that had been coming up the 
eastern coast of Arabia with these little fellows 
and other slaves to be sold on the date planta- 
tions along the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. 
The British consul had gone out and seized them 
from the slavers, and had delivered them to Mr. 
Zwemer to keep until they were eighteen years of 
age, when they were to be given their manumis- 
sion papers. They sat in the plain room, dressed 
in their brown khaki garments with their little 
red fezes on their heads, just as happy as the 
children of a king. * They were not so, ' said Mr. 
Zwemer, 'when I got them. The eighteen of them 
huddled together in the middle of the floor just 
like rabbits, and every time I came close they 
huddled nearer together. They distrusted every 
one. For months they had known nothing but 
abuse and cruelty, and had been shut down in the 
hold of the slave ship in order that they might 
not betray their presence. ' I saw on the cheek 
of each child a little mark about the size of a 
silver half-dollar on the cheekbone, and I asked 
Mr. Zwemer what that curious scar was. 'Why,' 




YOUNG MOSLEM GIRL FROM ABYSSINIA 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 259 

said he, 'that is the brand of the slaver's iron. 
Every one of these little boys was burned that 
way.' I understood something, standing in the 
presence of those eighteen little black boys with 
the brand of the slaver's iron on their cheeks, of 
what it was that nerved Wilberf orce and Clarkson 
to endure ignominy and shame and social ostra- 
cism until at last they had stricken the shackles 
from the wrists of the last British slave and rein- 
stated him in his rights as a man." 

What was done at Muscat on a small scale has 
been done over and over again in West and East 
Africa and in India on behalf of Moslem slave 
children in much larger numbers. But much re- 
mains to be done. Slavery is not yet a thing of 
the past in Africa nor in West Arabia. The little 
Moslem slave girl from Abyssinia in our illus- 
tration has the very brand marks on her face that 
I remember seeing on the faces of our slave boys 
at Muscat, and appeals mutely to the Friend of 
children, and to those who are His friends, for 
deliverance. 

Medical missions have been the great pioneer 
agency in all Moslem lands, and have brought the 
ministry of friendship with that of healing simul- 
taneously into the lives of hundreds of thousands 
of babes and children. There are today more 
than 100 fully equipped mission hospitals in 
the great centres of Moslem population all the 



260 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

way from West Africa to Malaysia. If one could 
visit in succession the children's wards and talk 
with the little Moslem patients, what a story of 
suffering relieved would be revealed, and what a 
new significance would be given to the words of 
Christ, "I was sick and ye visited Me." In Con- 
stantinople, Old Cairo, Calcutta, Teheran, Damas- 
cus, Beirut, Amritsar, Baghdad, Busrah, and 
other centres, although not so populous, such as 
Aden, Algiers, Muscat, Quetta, Peshawar, and 
Yezd, hospitals have been opened and outdoor dis- 
pensary relief given to suffering childhood. At 
Yezd, for example, Dr. H. White took up his resi- 
dence in April, 1898, and forthwith opened a dis- 
pensary. Before the close of the year he had 
registered 5,000 out-patients and visited 500 
homes of the people. The story of medical mis- 
sions at Baghdad, Bahrein, or Aden in Arabia if 
told in detail would be more interesting than a 
romance. Many of these Arab patients travel in- 
credible distances to obtain treatment, like the 
cripple boy of fourteen, homeless and friendless, 
who begged his way to Baghdad, limping 200 
miles with the aid of a crutch. 1 

Patients come from the distant interior prov- 
inces to the coast towns because they know that 
here kindness awaits them and the loving skill of 
Christian physicians. The few who come, how- 

1 "The Persia and Turkish Missions/' 1909, p. 42. (C.M.S.) 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 261 

ever, only emphasize the need of the many chil- 
dren whose suffering is unrelieved. 

The preparation of Christian literature, that is, 
literature suited to the mind of a child, must also 
be noted as perhaps the greatest contribution of 
missions in uplifting and emancipating those who 
are able to read. The twenty main Moslem lan- 
guages have the Bible translated into them in 
whole or in part. This includes such important 
versions as the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish ; the 
Urdu and Bengali editions for the millions in 
India ; the Malay for those in the East Indies, and 
many other versions for the Turkish and Tartar 
tribes of Southwest and Central Asia, as well as 
those in the African languages, such as Hausa and 
Swaheli. The Bible in the vulgar tongue is un- 
doubtedly the greatest literary treasure we can 
put into the lap of childhood. 

Although ignorance and illiteracy are so uni- 
versal in the Moslem world, we must not lose sight 
of the fact that the percentage and the number of 
readers is increasing every year by hundreds and 
thousands. The army of those who go to school 
wins new recruits daily in every Moslem land, be- 
cause they themselves are awakening to the possi- 
bilities of education. Nearly a million new 
readers graduate from the Indian government 
schools every year. A large proportion of these 
are Moslems. Christian missions to-day are all 



262 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

educational to a greater or less degree. Of many- 
parts of the world it may be said, as in the case 
of Uganda, that an inquirer is called a reader. We 
have found the children of the mountain villages 
of Oman the best purchasers of Gospels and Old 
Testament portions, and in some of the day 
schools of this wholly Moslem province they are 
actually using the Proverbs of Solomon as a read- 
ing book. One of the most hopeful signs for the 
future is to see groups of Moslem children poring 
over Gospel portions which they have purchased 
from some wayfaring colporteur, often in out-of- 
the-way places. The Scriptures reach centres 
which are at present inaccessible to the mission- 
ary, and an order for an Arabic Bible has been 
received from Mecca. A few verses on a piece of 
paper, taken from Bathurst to Timbuktu by a 
trader, led to the order for the complete Book 
from which they were taken, to be brought on the 
next journey ; and on the next, for eighteen Arabic 
Bibles. So the way of the Lord is prepared. Let 
the Scriptures be read, and the contrast between 
Christ and Mohammed must be apparent even to 
the mind of a child. 

Together with the Bible there are the begin- 
nings of children's literature. In England and 
America every stage from babyhood to adoles- 
cence is carefully considered in the book world, 
but in many Moslem languages nothing is yet pre- 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 

pared that is worthy of note ; and there is a loud 
call to meet this need. Miss I. Lilias Trotter, in 
writing of this subject, remarks that the greatest 
hope of winning the boys for the Kingdom seems 
to be through the printing press and its distribu- 
tors. In Egypt the American Mission brings out 
a magazine for children in Arabic, and the Beirut 
Press, as well as the Nile Mission Press, has 
issued some translations of English stories; but 
few of these are specially written for Moslem 
readers. Here is a new world of opportunity to 
be conquered, — from the simplest card that would 
catch the eye of the waif on the street to illus- 
trated story books for boys and girls in their 
teens, or the wonders of science and the beauties 
of nature told in the language of childhood. 

"The time is short,' ' says Miss Trotter; "while 
we wait the present generation of boyhood will 
be swept past our reach, without a hand held out 
to it in its wild temptations and its infinite possi- 
bilities. Boys who went unnoticed through the 
Sunday Schools of long ago, some even who were 
their bane, have returned as inquirers, bringing 
their wives and their babies along with them, and 
are beginning to stand out, illuminated with the 
daybreak.' ' 

The impact of Western civilization upon the 
whole world of Islam will compel those who are 
responsible for the uplift of Mohammedan child- 



264 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

hood to prepare a pure literature. The newly- 
aroused intellectual life must be guided into clean 
channels of thought. Already we may see how 
educated Moslem youth is misguided and cor- 
rupted by the worst of European literature. As 
a missionary in Turkey remarked: "It is deplora- 
ble when children born into new intellectual life 
through the missionary agency are left to grow 
up on such food as they can get from France. . . . 
Shall we deny to the children of our own prayers 
the river of the water of Life, with its trees of 
sweet fruit and leaves for the healing of the na- 
tions, and send them to the slimy waste waters of 
the worst continental literature to quench their 
thirst ? ' ' Although the work of preparing suitable 
literature for Moslem childhood is still in its in- 
fancy, much has been done by mission presses and 
religious literature societies, and more is being 
attempted year by year. Over the doors of these 
institutions one might well write the verses of 
Katharine Tynan : 



"I gather rich stores for the children, the children, 
The lowing of oxen is heard as I come; 
I carry the sheaves in my arms for the children, 
Oh, sweet on the hill-top the lights of home! 

" Unless the Lord build it, the house for the children ; 
Unless He be with me, my labour's in vain. 
He has thought it, and planned it, the fold for the children, 
Where the lambs may be folded without fear or stain. 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 265 

" I fight the holy fight for the children, the children ; 
The sons of God glorious sit down at my board; 
Though the foes hem us in, shall I fear for the children, 
Fighting the strong fight in the name of the Lord ? " 

And it is a fight to train the Moslem child's mind 
and to win its heart: a fight against heredity- 
age-long; against environment, such as we have 
seen described ; and most of all, against the opposi- 
tion of parents and Moslem leaders who are un- 
willing that any of these children should be taken 
away from under the yoke of Islam. The fight 
would be hopeless if we stood alone in it, but He 
that is greater than all is with us. No one can 
snatch them out of His hand, and His hand is 
stretched out to draw them to Himself. Christ 
alone can right their wrongs, lighten their dark- 
ness, and dispel their ignorance. Once these little 
lambs hear His voice they will follow their Shep- 
herd: nay, they will endure persecution for His 
sake. The story is told of two little girls, sisters, 
in Algeria, the one fifteen and the other seven, 
who first learned to know the Friend of children 
at the girls' hostel of the M. E. Mission. 

"When Algyia, helpless, was in the Moslem 
home under pretext of a three days' visit, the 
women shouted and used threats to make her a 
'witness' to the false prophet, that is, acknowl- 
edge Mohammed. 'I will follow Jesus till I die,' 
was the only answer. 'And,' added the little 



266 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

sister, 'then she went away alone and sang 
"Jusqu'a la mort nous serons fideles" (Faithful 
we will be unto death) to encourage herself, you 
know.' Then they threatened to kill them with a 
knife if they were obdurate or attempted to es- 
cape. But Algyia refused. The women said, * She 
finds her strength in the Book. Tear it up and 
she will fail.' So they tore up the New Testa- 
ment. 'And that was the only time,' said the little 
sister, 'that Algyia cried.' " 

Such instances of the faithfulness of little chil- 
dren might be multiplied. The spirit of martyr- 
dom is not dead, as the records of girls' schools 
in Cairo and in India would show, but publicity 
in these cases often means added persecution. A 
better day is dawning, however, a day of liberty 
not only for Moslem manhood but for the home. 

If the evangelization of Moslem childhood is 
part of the plan of God — and no thoughtful Chris- 
tian man or woman can for a moment doubt this 
— there never was a time when this task was more 
urgent and more possible than it is to-day. As 
the Koran itself says: "Every nation has its ap- 
pointed time, and when that appointed time comes 
they cannot hold it back an hour." There is no 
part of the whole world field that has seen more 
stupendous changes, political and social, within 
the last two years than has Southeast Europe, 
North Africa, and Western Asia. Politically 



THE IMPACT OF THE WEST 267 

Islam has lost its power throughout the whole of 
Africa, the whole of Europe, and is losing its grip 
even on Asia. Where formerly all evangelistic 
effort carried on directly for Moslems was inter- 
dicted or suppressed by the jealousy of Moslem 
governors and rulers, to-day Islam has lost its 
sword, and the very disasters which have over- 
taken its rulers have chastened and subdued the 
hearts of Moslems everywhere. The great Euro- 
pean war, with all its horrors, has nevertheless 
helped to this end. The whole of North Africa 
has passed under European Government. This 
means settled administration, modern education, 
and the inevitable breakdown of Moslem opposi- 
tion. All the conditions emphasize that this is the 
time of times for large effort. It was the convic- 
tion of a representative gathering of Egyptian 
missionaries recently held that : 

"God is calling us to special effort on behalf 
of the Moslems ... by doors of opportunity 
which His providence has opened up, and by an 
era of responsiveness which has been ushered in 
through the manifest operations of His Holy 
Spirit. Today, as never before, there is manifest 
among Moslems an interest in Christianity and 
its teachings." 

Of what was once the Turkish Empire Dr. 
James I. Barton says: "We are confronted with 
an opportunity and a responsibility never before 



268 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

faced in the same peculiar form, and in the same 
degree, by any missionary society. . . . These 
opportunities will not indefinitely remain. They 
are ours to-day.' ' A missionary in Morocco 
writes to say that ninety per cent of the Moslem 
children are accessible to those who make tactful 
efforts for their uplift and education; and simi- 
lar testimony comes from Persia, India, and 
China. 

This world of Moslem childhood, so numerous 
and dwelling in areas so vast in the occupied and 
unoccupied fields of the world, has passed before 
our vision. We have seen something of their en- 
vironment, of the conditions childhood faces from 
infancy to adolescence; how much their minds 
and hearts are neglected, as well as their bodies ; 
how much is left out of their lives that should be 
put in, and how much is put in that should be left 
out. The facts themselves are the strongest ap- 
peal. Yet one comes back again and again, as we 
gaze into the faces of these little children, show- 
ing such possibilities and opportunities, to those 
words of the Master: "Suffer the little children 
to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such 
is the kingdom of Heaven." 

The evangelization of the Moslem world in this 
generation may dismay even the most dauntless 
faith, but the evangelization of the coming genera- 
tion is not an impossible task to those who have 




T3 
O 



H too 

In a 

pq "3 

I CO 

q -a 

o -^ 

o -~ 

& o 



bo 

o 



270 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

attempt this task, we can by faith see the day 
approaching when these children shall grow up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, 
to the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ. 



AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT 



Bakhsh, S. Khuda " Essays Indian and Islamic," 

London: Probsthain, 1912. 

Broomhall, Marshall " Islam in China," 

London: Morgan and Scott, 
1910. 

Burton, Richard " Pilgrimage to Ed Medinah and 

Mekka," 
London: 1857 and later. 

Cabaton, A " Java and the Dutch East Indies," 

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 
1911. 

Census of Egypt, The 1900. 

Crossland, Cyril " Desert and Water Gardens of the 

Red Sea," 
Cambridge, 1913. 

Ad Damiri " Zoological Lexicon." 

Dennis, James S " Christian Missions and Social 

Progress," 
New York: Revell, 1897. 

Doughty, Charles M " Arabia Deserta," 

Cambridge University Press, 

1888. 

Dwight, T. Otis "A Muslim Sir Galahad," 

New York: Revell, 1913. 

Ferrand, Gabriel " Les Musulmans a Madagascar," 

Paris, 1891. 

Gairdner, W. H. T " The Reproach of Islam," 

London: Y.P.M.M., 1909. 

Al-Ghazali " Ihya 'Ulum Id Din." 

Goldziher, Ignaz Article Education in Hastings' 

" Encyclopedia of Religion 
and Ethics." 

Goldziher, Ignaz " Hadith and the New Testament," 

London: S.P.C.K. 

Haji Ahmed " The Muslim Guide," 

Lahore, 1913. 

271 



2X% CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 

Al Hariri Translated by T. Chenery, 

London: Royal Asiatic So- 
ciety, 1898. 

Hogarth, D. G "The Nearer East," 

New York, 1902. 

Houtsma " Encyclopedia of Islam/' 

Articles: Allah, Prayer, Ab- 
lution, etc. 

Hughes, T. P " Dictionary of Islam," 

Articles : Children, Aqiqah, 
Puberty, etc. 

Huntington, Ellsworth "The Pulse of Asia," 

New York, 1907. 

Islam and Missions " Lucknow Conference Report," 

New York: Revell, 1911. 

Kamal-ud-Din " Islam and Prayer," 

Woking, 1914. 

Klein, F. A "The Religion of Islam," 

London: Kegan Paul, 1906. 

Koelle, S. W " Mohammed and Mohammedan- 
ism," 
London: Longmans, 1889. 

Labaree, Mary Schauffler " The Child in the Midst," 

New York, 1914. 

MacDonald, D. B " Aspects of Islam," 

New York: Macmillan, 1911. 

MacDonald, D. B " Moral Education of the Young 

Among Moslems " 
(International Journal of 
Ethics, Vol. XV). 

Margoliouth, D. S " Mohammedanism," 

London: Williams and Nor- 
gate, 1913. 

Martin, Frank A " Under the Absolute Amir," 

New York: Harper, 1907. 

Meakin, Budgett "The Moors," 

London: Macmillan, 1902. 

Montet, E " Saint Worship in North Africa " 

(The Moslem World, July, 
1913). 

Mohammedan World of To-day, 

The " Cairo Conference Report," 

New York: Revell, 1906. 



AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO 2X3 

Moslem World Quarterly, The. Vols. I-IV, 

London. 

Niebuhr, Carsten " Travels in Arabia," 

Edinburgh, 1792. 

Opitz, Karl " Die Medizin im Koran," 

Stuttgart, 1906. 

Orr, Capt. C. W. J " The Making of Northern Ni- 
geria," 
London, 1911. 

Report of the World's Seventh Sunday-school Convention held 
in Zurich, 1913. 

Revue du Monde Musulman. . . Vols. I-XVIII, 

Paris: Ernest Leroux. 

Richter, Julius "A History of Protestant Missions 

in the Near East," 
New York: Revell, 1910. 
Rodwell's and Palmer's Koran. 
Round Table Quarterly Review, 

The " Islam and the Empire," 

December, 1913. 

Saleeby, Janeeb M " Studies in Moro History, Law, 

and Religion," 
Manila, 1905. 

Simon, G- " Progress and Arrest of Islam in 

Sumatra," 
London: Marshall Bros., 1912. 

Todd, M. L " Tripoli the Mysterious," 

London: Grant Richards, 1912. 

Tremearne, Major " The Ban of the Bori," 

London, 1914. 

Van Sommer, Annie " Our Moslem Sisters," 

New York: Revell, 1907. 

Vischer, Hans " Across the Sahara," 

London, 1910. 

Westermarck, Edward " Marriage Ceremonies in Mo- 
rocco," 
London, 1914. 

Wishard, John G " Twenty Years in Persia," 

New York: Revell, 1900. 



274 CHILDHOOD IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 



N.B. — In addition to these books I am greatly indebted to the 
missionary correspondents whose names are given below for in- 
formation on Moslem childhood, received in response to a ques- 
tionnaire sent on in connection with the World's Seventh Sunday- 
school Convention, held at Zurich, Switzerland, July 8-15, 1913. 
A part of this questionnaire dealt with the present condition of 
Moslem children in regard to their numbers, their condition in- 
tellectually, their education, childhood diseases, mortality, and 
moral conditions, judged by Christian standards. The rest of 
the questionnaire was concerned particularly with educational 
and Sunday-school work among them: 



Mr. H. P. Elson, Morocco 
Miss F. M. Banks, Morocco 
Miss A. E. Gordon, Morocco 
Rev. Percy Smith, Morocco 
Rev. F. F. Goodsell, Morocco 
Mr. C. Nairn, Morocco 
Mr. J. C. H. Purdon, Tunisia 
Mr. Evan E. Short, Tunisia 
Mr. Arthur V. Liley, Tunisia 
Mr. Joseph C. Cooksey, Tunisia 
Mr. W. Reid, Tripoli 
Rev. E. F. Frease, Algeria 
M. Michel L. Olives, Algeria 
Mr. Thomas J. P. Warren, Algeria 
Misses Read, Turner, and John- 
ston, Algeria 
Mr. Joseph T. C. Blackmore, Al- 
geria 
Miss I. Lilias Trotter, Algeria 
Mr. E. J. C. Cox, Kahylia (Al- 
geria) 
Rev. F. W. Dodds, West Africa 
Mr. A. Jehle, West Africa 
Mr. E. Funke, West Africa 
Rev. Raymond P. Dougherty, 

West Africa 
Rev. T. A. Lambie, Sudan 
Rev. Carl Nauhaus, East Africa 
Mr. P. Olsson, East Africa 
Rev. Klamroth, East Africa 
Mr. E. Minkner, Natal 
Rev. G. B. A. Gardener, South 

Africa 
Rev. C. Muller, South Africa 
Rev. John Giffen, Egypt 
Mr. George Swan, Egypt 
Mrs. M. L. Richardson, Egypt 
Mr. P. Bijl, Egypt 
Mr. James S. Stewart. Syria 
President Howard S. Bliss, Syria 



Rev. F. E. Hoskins, Syria 
Miss M. L. Johnston, Syria 
Rev. J. P. McNaughton, Turkey 
Mrs. I. S. Stapleton, Turkey 
Rev. H. M. Irwin, Turkey 
Rev. G. E. White, Turkey 
Rev. J. E. Merrill, Turkey-in-Asia 
Rev. S. C. Webb, Palestine 
Mr. Frank T. Ellis, Palestine 
Mr. E. A. Thompson, Palestine 
Miss A. H. M. Neile, Palestine 
Rev. R. Sterling, Palestine 
Miss Blanche E. Smithies, Pales- 
tine 
Mr. Frederick Carpenter, Pales- 
tine 
Rev. F. J. Jessup, Persia 
Miss Mary R. S. Bird, Persia 
Mr. H. P. Packard, Persia 
Rev. W. A. Shedd, Persia 
Rev. James Cantine, Arabia 
Rev. J. C. Young, M.D., Arabia 
Rev. F. J. Barny, Arabia 
Rev. E. E. Calverley, Arabia 
Rev. P. V. Boyes, Turkish Arabia 
Mr. Harry C. York, Ceylon 
Prof. W. J. Johory, India 
Rev. E. M. Wherry, India 
Mr. George H. Hamler, India 
Miss E. J. Williams, India 
Rev. Robert Maxwell, India 
Rev. H. J. Scudder, India 
Mr. C. Bolwig, Manchuria 
Mr. H. H. Lowry, China 
Mr. F. Herbert Rhodes, China 
Mr. D. Crommelin, Java 
Rev. R. J. Denyes, Java 
Rev. Joh. Rauws, Malaysia 
Rev. W. G. Shellabear, Malay 

Peninsula 
George A. Simons, M.D., Russia 



PRINTED IN THE TTNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



Some Important Works 
on Mohammedanism 



7^? Mohammedan Worlds/Today 

A Symposium edited by James L. Barton, D.D., 

S. M. Zwemer, D.D. and E. M. Wherry, D.D. 

Illustrated, 8 vo, Cloth, $1.50 net 

Islam and Christianity 

The Irrepressible Conflict 
By E. M. Wherry, D.D. Cloth, $1.25 net 

Our Moslem Sisters 

A Symposium edited by Annie Van Sommer 
Illustrated, Cloth, $1.25 net 

Arabia, the Cradle of Islam 

By S. M. Zwemer, D.D., F. R. G. S. 

Illustrated, Cloth, $2.00 

Persian Life and Customs 

By Samuel G. Wilson, M.A. 
Illustrations and AIaJ>s, Cloth, $1.25 

The Egyptian Sudan 

By John Kelly Giffen, D.D. 
Illustrated, Cloth, $1.00 net 

Constantinople and Its Problems 

By Henry O. Dwight, L.L.D. 

Illustrated, Cloth, $1.23 net 

Henry Martyn 

First Modern Missionary to Mohammedans 
By George Smith Illustrated, Cloth, $1.50 net 

Missions and Modern History 

By Robert E. Speer, M.A. 
2 vols., 8 vo.., Cloth, $4.00 net 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

Publishers 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 



ROBERT E. SPEER The Cole Lectures for 191 1. 

Some Great Leaders in the World 

Movement i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 

Mr. Speer in his characteristic inspiring way has pre- 
sented the key note of the lives of six of the World's great- 
est missionaries: Raymond Lull, the crusading spirit in mis- 
sions; William Carey, the problems of the pioneer; Alexander 
Duff, Missions and Education; George Bowen, the ascetic 
ideal in missions; John Lawrence, politics and missions; and 
Charles G. Gordon, modern missionary knight-errancy, 

S. M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S., and Others 

Islam and Missions 

l2mo, cloth, net $1.50. 

This volume presents the papers read at the Second 
Conference on Missions to Moslems, recently held in Luck- 
now, India. The contributors are all experts of large ex- 
perience in such mission effort. 

VANSOMMER, ANNIE, and Others 

Daylight in the Harem 

A New Era for Moslem Women. In Press. 

Woman's work for Woman is nowhere more needed than 
on the part of Christian women for their sisters of Islam. 
It is a most difficult field of service, but this volume by au- 
thors long and practically interested in this important Chris- 
tian ministry, demonstrates how effectually this work has 
opened and is being carried forward with promising results. 

ROBERT A. HUME, P.P. 

An Interpretation of India's Religious 

Lli <£)-rk«"tr Introduction by President King. LL.D. 
tllSIOry ofOberlin College 

l2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 

The author of this careful, though popular, study, is 
eminently qualified to deal with the subject of his thought- 
ful volume. Equipped for this purpose through long resi- 
dence in India and intimate study of India's religious his- 
tory, what he says will be accepted as the estimate and in- 
terpretation of an authority. 

MARGARET E. BURTON 

The Education of Women in China 

Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 

The author of this scholarly study of the Chinese woman 
and education is the daughter of Prof. Ernest E- Burton, of 

the University of Chicago The work is probably the 

most thorough study of an important phase of the economic 
development of the world's most populous country that Hat 
appeared 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 



GEORGE F. HERRICK, P.P. 

Fifty Years Missionary of the American Board In Turbp 

Christian and Mohammedan 

A Plea for Bridging the Chasm. Illustrated, net $1.25. 
"Dr. derrick has given his life to missionary work among 
the Mohammedans. Opinions from leading missionaries to 
Mohammedans, in all parts of the world have been brought 
together in the book for the elucidation of essential points 
4)£ the problem and form an immensely practical feature of 
the discussion." — Henry Otis Dwight, LL.D. 

JAMES L. BARTON, D. D. 

Human Progress Through Missions 

i2mo, cloth, net 50c. 

By the Foreign Secretary of the American Board. The 
book is a notable addition to the apologetics of Missions and 
will carry a message of conviction to many a reader who 
may not be fully persuaded of the value and necessity of 
Christian work in foreign lands. 
ALICE M. GUERNSEY 

A Queen Esther Round Robin 

Decorated Paper, in Envelope, net 25c. 

"It was a pretty conceit to have a disbanding mission 
eircle keep up their mutual connection by writing a "round 
robin." It is just the thing for girls' mission bands."— 
S. S. Times. 

S. M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S. 

Arabia : The Cradle of Islam 

Studies in the Geography, People and Politics of 
fehe Peninsula; with an account of Islam and Mis- 
sionary Work. New Edition. Illustrated. 8vo, 
Cloth, net $2.00. 

AN STIC E ABBOTT 

The Stolen Bridegroom 'e^SSSSomm 

Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net 75c. 

The author has vividly portrayed some of the ways in 
which Christ enters the Hindu heart; Just the book to read 
in the auxiliary society or to bring into the reading club."— 
Mission Studies. 

Children's Missionary Series 

Cloth, decorated, each, net 60c. 
New Volumes. 
Children of Persia. Mrs. Napier Malcolm. 
Children of Borneo. Edwin H. Gomes. 

Each volume is written by an authority on the countries 
represented as well as by a writer who knows how to tell 
ft Story that will both entertain and instruct children. 



CONCERNING FOREIGN LANDS 

EDWARD WARREN CAPEN, Ph. P. 

Organizing Secretary of the Hartford School of Missions 

Sociological Progress in Mission Lands 

8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 

The material for this able sociological survey Dr. Capen 
gathered during a visitation of the missionary fields of the 
world. Dr. James Dennis says: "Dr. Capen's grasp of a very 
large and complex subject is adequate and well balanced." 

JEREMIAH ZIMMERMAN, P.P. 

The God Juggernaut and Hinduism in 

India Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 

"A careful study of the religious rites and gods of Hindu- 
ism, based on his observations during a 5,000 mile journey in 
the East, Dr. Zimmerman writes entertainingly and instruc- 
tively of the life of these millions of our fellow human- 
beings of whom we have known so little." — Syracuse Herzld. 

REN A L. HOGG Of the American {United Presbyterian) 
Mission in Egypt. 

A Master Builder on the Nile 

Being the Record of the Life and Labors of John 
Hogg, D.D. Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 

Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer says: "It is bound to interest 
people as fully as the life story of any missionary published 
in recent years." 

CARL LEROY HOWLANP, Ph.B. 

Manual of Missions 

Introduction by Bishop W. T. Hogue, cloth, net 75c. 

"An authoritative statement of just what those interested in 
world-wide evangelization desire to know regarding the occu- 
pied and unoccupied fields of missionary enterprise. The 
writer knows of no other work which presents so many and 
such varied facts regarding foreign missionary work within 
so small a compass." — Bishop Wilson T. Hogue. 

J. J. MULLOWNEY, P.P. and His Chinese Friend 

A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution 

i2mo, cloth, net 75c. 

m An authentic and intimate record of the Chinese Revolu- 
tion. The author's data, inspired by men behind the scenes, 
shows how the extravagance and inefficiency of the Manchus 
brought about the ruin of their dynasty, and ushered in the 
first Republic of the East. There is, in addition, a closely- 
written and illuminating review of the social and political 
conditions which now obtain in the Flowery Kingdom. 






















- #'V^ 

Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

-1 WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779*111 




V. 



'/....V'-'V 






